Outlaw: Running from Love
by PurpleCoverseAnnabeth
Summary: Percy Jackson became Goode High's ultimate playboy when his first love cheated on him. Enter Annabeth Chase, the girl who has never had a boyfriend, and was an outcast at her old school. Obviously, Percy falls for her. Will she let him in? And if so, can she keep him? Or will he just hurt her and himself again? A/U, not demigods.
1. Chapter 1

**A.N.: **_This idea came to me one day while listening to "Outlaw" by Selena Gomez. This is my first FanFiction, so please go easy on me! Flames are not accepted and will be used to braai some chops :P it's a South African thing_

_In this story Percy has just turned 17 and Annabeth is almost 16. Percy is a Junior and Annabeth a Sophmore. Forgive me if I get some stuff wrong, I'm not American._

_And also, Thalia and Percy are cousins. Nico is not related to them in any way. _

_**Disclaimer**: it should be obvious that I don't own Percy Jackson and his friends. I'm a 15-year-old South African GIRL. Full credit for characters and most of their personalities go to Rick Riordan. I don't own the song "Outlaw" either, it just gave me the idea. However I do own the CD I have with said song on it, and the entire collection of Percy Jackson books. _

_I am rambling, so on with the story!_

**Chapter 1**

**Percy POV:**

"Rachel, I cant believe you!" I shouted at my girlfriend.

She pulled away from the guy whose tongue was down her throat just seconds before.

"Percy, I swear, its not what it looks-" I cut her off,

"You've always been like this! You do something stupid, and it's never your fault! You may think that I'm blind, and stupid, and that I wont leave you, but you're _so_ wrong! I've had enough…"

I turned to walk away from my now ex-girlfriend, but she reached out to grab my wrist and pull me back.

"Percy, please…"

"I'm sorry, Rachel. I cant do this.''

With that I turned and walked away, holding back the tears that were threatening to spill over. And to think that today I was going to tell her that I loved her.

I didn't understand. Sure Rachel had always been a flirt, almost every guy at school had either been with her, if only for a week, or they wanted nothing more than to get into her pants. Not me. Rachel had been my friend for two years before we started dating. I was honestly surprised that we lasted for two months without any drama or cheating, which is almost what Rachel was famous for. I had to admit that I was shocked that she cheated, though I also had to agree with the smart part of my brain that said it wasn't completely unexpected.

I left the theatre and got into my car, started the engine and drove off home. As I drove, the tears started falling.

Of course none of my friends ever liked Rachel, not one bit. They always knew that she was trouble and that she would hurt me in the end. But I was so blinded by 'love' that I didn't bother paying attention. It hurt to know that they were right, and I was wrong. About my own girlfriend.

Thalia Grace, my cousin, could read people very well. I was sorry I didn't pay better attention when she tried to warn me about Rachel. Her boyfriend, Nico di Angelo, of course agreed with her. At the time, I found excuses, like, he was scared to disagree with Thalia (which can be fatal), he was jealous that every guy at school wanted my girlfriend and not his or that he just didn't like Rachel for no real reason.

Of course now I can see that they were trying to protect me from heartbreak.

I should have listened.

When I arrived home, I headed straight to my room, not even bothering to greet my mom like I always do.

"Hi, Percy," she smiled "Hold on! What happened?" she asked staring at my tearstained face and red puffy eyes. She walked away from the kitchen counter and over to me, pulling me into one of her amazing hugs. I could smell that she had been baking blue chocolate chip cookies.

See, my mom was once married to this guy, Gabe Ugliano, because she was desperate to look after me and Gabe had money. Anyway, he was convinced that you didn't get blue food. So it became a joke between Mom and I, and since then all my favourite foods get dyed blue. Gabe is long gone, and now Mom is married to a nice guy called Paul. He is actually my English teacher.

I tried to avoid her gaze, I didn't want to talk about it just yet.

"Percy?" she asked again.

I sighed, "I caught Rachel cheating…" I managed to get out before the tears started again.

Yes, I was crying and hugging my mom. I am a momma's boy. For years we only had each other to count on. And now I needed her to support me again.

She sighed as well, "Percy… I don't know what to tell you, but it will stop hurting, and one day, you will meet a girl who will have nothing on Rachel. And believe me, then you will be glad that Rachel is out of the picture."

"Thanks, Mom," I whispered.

"Now, who wants some blue cookies?"

I followed her into the kitchen and helped myself to a plate of hot and fresh blue chocolate chip cookies.

**A.N**_**.:**__ So there is chapter 1! Please review and tell me if you think I should continue this story. It might not be too good now, but it should get better._


	2. Chapter 2

Outlaw: Running from Love

Percy Jackson fell in love once and she broke his heart when she cheated. To try and escape the hurt, Percy has become a date and dump. Then he meets Annabeth Chase, who has never had a relationship, and he starts to fall hard for her. Is she the one? Will she heal him? Or will he break her heart (and his) again? Percabeth, AU, no gods.

**A.N**.: _OK, so here is chapter two. I'm posting it right after chapter 1._

_I know that in the last author's note/summary I classified the story as romance and angst. I only realised that after uploading the chapter and classifying it as romance and friendship, because I thought it would seem "happier"._

_Anyway, enjoy! And please review!_

**Disclaimer**_: I'm a girl. Therefore, its impossible for me to be Rick. If I were him there would be more Percabeth in the series. _

Chapter 2TWO YEARS LATER…

Annabeth POV:

I couldn't move. I just sat there, staring at my father and stepmother. _Had they really just said that?  
_

"So? Annabeth? What do you think?" my step mom, Cheryl, asked me.

"Well," I began "you've just told me that we are moving across the country, to New York of all places. What's wrong with here?"

"Well, honey," my dad looked at me with concerned eyes "they company is going under. I need to get out while I still can. If we wait and see if things will get better, they might not. And I've found a good job and a nice place in Manhattan, it'll be great!"

My dad had been a university lecturer until about three years ago, when he left to be an accountant. They pay was better. But recently, the company whose books he looked after had been having some financial trouble.

I sighed. I had always wanted to go to New York anyway…

"Well… I suppose its better to be safe than sorry…" I looked down at my shoes while saying this.

"You'll see, Annabeth, its gonna be better than you think," Cheryl said, smiling at me. I cracked a small smile.

"Yeah, its gonna be fine."

I slowly walked up the stairs to my room. _I'm going to miss my room… _I thought.

When I reached the top of the stairs, my little half brothers, Bobby and Matthew, were rolling around on the ground wrestling.

"Its mine!"

"No! Yours is the red one!"

"No it isn't! I don't even like red! The yellow one is mine!"

They were probably fighting over something stupid again, like a pair of underpants. They had done that before.

"Annabeth! Tell Bobby that his underpants are the red ones!" Matthew yelled at me.

"Mathew-'' I started to say.

"No!" Bobby cut in, "The red ones are yours!"

"GUYS!" I shouted. They stopped bickering to look at me.

"I have much more important things to do than sort out whose underwear is whose. And being twins, don't you each have one of everything?"

Just then Cheryl came up the stairs, to my rescue.

I made a run for it before I could get involved again.

_I wonder what school I'll be going to…_ I thought as I sat down at my desk. Hopefully I would be a bit more popular there. I didn't have any close friends in San Francisco. I was seen as the nerd, never getting lower than an A.

Although I look like a typical California Girl (blonde hair, tall, slim), the illusion is ruined by my stormy grey eyes. My dad has said before that I have my mom's eyes.

I wondered what she was like…

My dad had never told me why she left, and I had the feeling he was never going to.

**A.N.: **_we will find more out about why Annabeth was so unpopular in San Fran later…_

_For those of you confused, in the previous chapter, Percy was 15. now he has just turned 17 and Annabeth is almost 16. he birthday might be in the next chapter or soon after. _

_Please review, I need feedback! _


	3. Chapter 3

Outlaw: Running from Love

Percy Jackson fell in love once and she broke his heart when she cheated. To try and escape the hurt, Percy has become a date and dump. Then he meets Annabeth Chase, who has never had a relationship, and he starts to fall hard for her. Is she the one? Will she heal him? Or will he break her heart (and his) again? Percabeth, AU, no gods.

**A.N.: **_First: thank you to everyone who reviewed, it means a lot that you would take the time to even just say that you like the story so far. To the one Anon who reviewed: the chapters will get longer eventually, this is my first story so I'm still getting into this. And I will try to give Annabeth a really cool wardrobe _

_In the last A.N. I said something about the classification of this story, ignore that. I came up on the word document but not when I checked the story. And the heading was a bit messed up, so I apologise._

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Or any other characters. I'm only 15. And I'm a girl. It is therefore impossible for me to own PJO and the characters anyway.

Chapter 3

Percy POV:

"Percy!"

Ugh. Calypso.

We'd only been dating for a week, but the girl seemed head over heels for me already. She was a pretty girl, beautiful maybe, but she just wasn't… well a girl I could be with. She's nice enough, sure, heart of gold even, but she was only kind and caring to get attention.

I had been waiting outside her school. I needed to break up with her. I think the only reason she was with me in the first place is because I'm swim team captain. Anyway, breaking up with girls wasn't a new thing to me. I'd done this many times before. That fact that Rachel had broken my heart almost seemed to help. Nobody had been able to fix it. Probably because my heart was locked, and nobody had been able to find the key.

"Hey, Calypso…" I greeted her half-heartedly.

"Baby, what's wrong?" she asked me, fake concern in her eyes.

"We need to talk," I told her as I turned to walk towards the park, knowing that she would follow.

"What's up? Your mom run out of blue colouring?" she joked.

"Calypso… we need to break up."

There. That's all there is to it. Be blunt, cold hearted and never look in her eyes. If you see the hurt look, it will break you.

"But… but why?" I could hear the tears in her voice.

"It's just not working for me," I told her stone faced and looking at my shoes.

"Percy… it's only been a week! Give me another chance! Please? Just… I'll change if I have to! Just… please…?" She was begging.

Second important tip: never give in to the begging. Ever.

"Calypso, it's over." I began to walk back towards my apartment. I could hear her sobs getting softer the further away I got from her.

"_I'll change…" _ she had told me.

I wanted to shout, at all the girls I'd broken up with, that it's not them. It never was and never would be them.

It was me.

As cliché as it sounds, it's always, _always, _me.

"Mom! I'm home!" I called out as I threw my keys onto the table by the door.

"Hi, honey!" she called back from the study which doubled as her office. My mom had always wanted to be a writer, and now she was working on her first novel.

_She's been baking _I thought. I could smell and practically taste the fresh, blue chocolate chip cookies.

"Blue cookies in the kitchen!" _I knew it!_

"Thanks, Mom." I walked into the kitchen and grabbed a handful of blue cookies. I fetched a plate out of one of the cupboards and put my cookies on it.

"So how was your day?" Mom asked as she walked out of her office.

"Ok," I replied. "I broke up with Calypso."

"Percy…"

I sighed, cutting her off.

"Percy listen. I know that Rachel hurt you a lot, but the way you've been acting the past year is not going to fix this! You need to accept that Rachel never was and never will be the 'right one'!" she was almost yelling.

I could hear she was worried about me. She had raised me not to be like this, and I knew that she was disappointed in me for being the player I've become.

"I know, Mom. I'm sorry. But I don't know what to do…" I needed to tell her, I'd bee holding all these emotions inside for too long. They were finally going to spill over.

"I feel like I need to try and forget the hurt, and this is the only way I know how. I know that you're disappointed that I've become like this. I can understand if you don't like me anymore-"

"Perce…" she said softly looking at my teary eyes.

"Honestly, I don't like myself anymore. And I'm going to change. I promise. I won't date anymore unless I actually like the girl."

"Oh, Percy… I'm proud of you for making that decision. I know its hard, but I know you can do it," she said while simultaneously pulling me into one of her hugs. "I could never stop liking you, you're my baby boy!"

"Aw, Mom! Don't start that 'my little boy got so big' talk! Please?" I said it jokingly, but I was being dead serious.

She laughed. "Ok, then. But you have… Hmm… I think you need a haircut, sweetie."

"Will you do it for me please? You're the only person who cuts it how I like it done."

She nodded and went off to go and find the scissors.

I guess it's actually a good thing that I talked to my mom. And I meant every word I said. I was going to change.

After Mom had cut my hair (not too much so it was really short, there were still pieces that hung in my eyes) I went up to my room. I was going to call Thalia.

She would be the first person after my mom who I would talk to, being my cousin and everything. She had been very annoyed with me due to my actions over the last year.

Also, if I called her, she would tell Nico for me. If I called Nico and not Thalia, he wouldn't tell her, being too lazy and too Nico to bother calling his own girlfriend.

I picked up my phone and scrolled through my contacts until I found her number.

She answered on the fourth ring. "Hello, Percy?"

"Hey, Thals," I greeted her. "How've you been?"

"Not bad. So, what's up?" she asked. Typical Thalia, always gets right to the point.

"Well, I'll tell you if you promise not to laugh or tell me that it's impossible."

She sighed and I could practically see her rolling her eyes.

"Fine, I promise that I won't laugh or tell you that it (whatever 'it' is) is impossible."

I smiled. "Ok, well, I'm going to stop being a player. I wont date another girl unless I really like her."

"I- Perce… are you… you really mean that?" this was a first. Thalia was speechless.

Usually she had some sarcastic remark, or she would laugh even if she promised not to.

"Yes, Thals. I really mean it."

"Well… Wow. Percy, that's great! Really, I'm proud of you."

I could hear that she really meant it too.

"Thanks, Thals. See you at school?" I asked her, still grinning like a weird person.

"Yeah, see you. Oh, can I tell Nico or did you already call him?" she asked me, catching me before I hung up.

"I called you first so that you could call Nico, actually. If I had called him and not you, you wouldn't know until tomorrow, and I know how you hate not knowing stuff first."

She laughed, "Well maybe you do have some logic in you after all. I'll call Nico then. Bye, Perce."

"Gee, thanks," I rolled my eyes. "See you, Thals."

**A.N.: **_I think that was longer than the first two chapters. If its still too short, I'm still getting into this and I wanted to have this chapter up quickly. I was surprised at how many emails I received telling me people had favourited or added me to their author alerts. Thank you! It means a lot._

_Next chapter will be up later in the week or on the weekend._

_Peace out 3 _


	4. Chapter 4

**OUTLAW: RUNNING FROM LOVE**

**A.N.: **_Thank you to everybody who reviewed, I'm really grateful. I got so many story alerts and story favourites and really, I'm touched._

_I hope this chapter has more detail, like some of the reviews pointed out. And just a heads up: this could be a really long story!_

_NOTE: Nico is the same age as Percy, 17. Thalia is 16, just about a month or so older than Annabeth. Just clearing that up._

_Oh and I've decided not to post the summary at the beginning of each chapter. I think it was a bit pointless._

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. They belong to Rick Riordan. I never have and never will own them.

Read on dear readers!

**CHAPTER 4**

**Annabeth POV:**

There would be only one sad and heartfelt goodbye. That would be to Hazel Levesque, my only friend in San Francisco. I can't even call her a "best friend" really. We were never extremely close, but she was good company.

Hazel had beautiful dark skin with beautiful eyes to match. She had curly hair like me, but unlike my blonde mop she had amazing brown hair, which formed perfect curls.

She stood up for me on occasions, mostly because if I stood up for myself the teasing wouldn't stop. There needed to be another student to get the kids to stop. They never paid any attention to me or anything I'd say. They only mocked me for achieving good marks or teased me for being a teacher's pet.

When I told Hazel that I was leaving, I think she was a little lost for words. But being the good friend she is, she hugged me and told me to take care and keep contact.

And that was that.

News that I was leaving seemed to travel quickly around the school. Some of the bitchy popular girls joked and said that they would throw me a celebratory "going away party". Hazel got them to shut up pretty quickly though when she threatened to set her boyfriend, Frank Zhang, on them.

Frank was a big guy, but seriously he would never hurt a fly. He had a babyish face, a military haircut and could probably beat any football player up with ease. Enough to scare any bratty popular chick.

The day I was leaving was also my birthday. Hazel came over to say a final goodbye. She arrived just as I walked out the front door with my last suitcase of clothes.

"Hazel! I thought you were going away this weekend!" I said, dropping the suitcase and running over to throw my arms around her neck.

"This sounds really mushy, but I had to come and see you off. Anyway, there was a change of plan," she replied while hugging me back.

"Thank you, so much…" I told her while struggling to hold back tears. I never knew that she actually cared enough to come and visit one more time before I boarded that plane to NYC.

"Anytime," she told me as she pulled back. "Annabeth, I think this will be a good thing. You can start over, completely. It will be good for you.

"I hope you're right, Hazel," I sighed.

"And happy birthday," she said, producing a small wrapped gift from her brown leather messenger bag. "I know its only on Tuesday, but this is the last time I will see you for a while, and to mail it would take ages, so…"

"Wow, Hazel, thank you!" I told her carefully taking the gift she held out to me.

"Don't open it now, I'll probably cry or something. But text me and tell me what you think of it."

I laughed.

"Sure thing. Thank you," I said again, "for everything."

After some more promising to keep in touch and tearful hugging, I climbed in the car where my parents and brothers were waiting. And while waving goodbye for the last time to Hazel, we rounded the corner and drove off to the airport.

While I sat in the car, watching the houses go past the window, I thought to myself that maybe I could call Hazel my best friend after all.

I tucked the still wrapped gift into my denim messenger bag, which looked like it was made from a pair of old jeans, deciding to open it when we got on the plane.

We got trough customs and security without having to wait for too long. The plane ride, however, was a completely different story.

The journey was long, and Bobby was constantly kicking the back of my seat. I sat by the window with Matthew next to me, and Dad next to him in the aisle

Seat. Bobby sat behind be with Cheryl next to him. I honestly thought that Matthew would also want to sit next to the window, but it turns out he's afraid of flying.

After an hour of being kicked in the back, I remembered the present from Hazel in my bag. I leaned forward to fetch my bag from under my seat when Bobby kicked me again. I was just about to turn around and tell him off, but Dad beat me too it.

I went back to fetching my bag from under the seat while Dad scolded Bobby for constantly kicking my seat. I heard him say that if Bobby didn't stop, Dad would stop the plane and throw him out. I know that could never happen, but it got Bobby to stop which is the main thing.

After pulling my bag up onto my lap and finding Hazel's gift, I carefully started to open it.

The pretty silver paper fell away to reveal a small silk bag, and inside it was the most beautiful pair of owl earrings with a necklace to match. Hazel knew about my love for owls, which is probably the reason that she chose them.

"Wow, those are beautiful. Did Hazel give you those?" asked Cheryl from behind me.

"Yeah," I whispered in reply.

"And they're owls. Your favourite bird."

"Mm hmm… I think I'm going to take a nap, 'kay, Cheryl?"

"Sure, honey. I might do that too. I wish they picked better in-flight movies. I mean really? _Snow Buddies?_" she complained.

I laughed at that.

"Yeah they could really do better…"

I leaned back and closed my eyes, pulling my black hoodie closer around me.

I don't remember the rest of the trip, after putting away my new jewellery. I fell asleep and I didn't wake up until the plane landed.

**A.N.: **_So there it is. Chapter 4. Next will be in Percy POV again. For those of you who aren't sure, POV means Point Of View._

_Also the next chapter will probably be up next weekend. _

_Please review, I'd love to hear your thoughts._

_Until then, peace out y'all!_

_No seriously, peace guys._

_And stop rhino poaching _


	5. Chapter 5

**OUTLAW: RUNNING FROM LOVE**

**A.N.: **_Hello! I'm very sorry that I didn't update this last week, but I decided to post the Mothers Day one-shot instead and I didn't have a chapter typed up yet. But it is my aim to update every weekend._

_I also planned to update on Thursday, cause we got off school for Ascension Day, but I had physics homework (I will not be taking it next year!) and in the afternoon I had art and then dancing. So, yeah._

_Anyway, here it goes. _

_And by the way, I have an idea of where I am going with this story, but if you have any suggestions of ideas PM me or tell me in a review!_

_And to the people who got the line right in the one-shot, here are the names:_

_PerseusSlayerOfMedusa – the first one to review and get it right! Well done _

_the freakin taco – Leo is a favourite of mine too _

_SeaJacksonDaughterOfPoseidon – Leo brightens my day too!_

_Emma – one of the two who added how Leo said it, well done!_

_BeccaH –BoOk LuVeR – Leo is my homeboy too :P_

_BluelikesPink – yes you are awesome ha ha_

_crazylove27 – ha ha don't worry, I'm obsessed too!_

_Ok, so that was a very long A.N., so on with the story!_

**Chapter 5**

PERCY POV:

It had been a week since I told my mom and my friends my big decision. I have to tell you, it wasn't easy keeping my promise. But to be completely honest, I felt happier than I had in ages. I felt free and… just like I didn't have to live up to a reputation I didn't even want. It was like I could be the real me around my friends. The best part? I could laugh again.

Since this whole mess began, I didn't smile much and I almost never laughed. I was too broken up inside. But because I had decided to move on, it didn't feel that way anymore.

I walked into school that Monday morning, cool and confident. I walked over to my locker to collect my books for my first class, history. I had expected to find only Nico and Thalia waiting for me, but there was another girl with them.

She had blonde hair, pulled into a ponytail and curling down her back in princess like curls and a few stray pieces framing her beautiful face. She was wearing dark blue skinny jeans and an orange tank top over a white lace cami, which stuck out the bottom, and a pair of dark grey flats.

Only after taking in her overall appearance, did I notice her eyes. They were a beautiful grey with a calculating look in them, like she was analysing me. I felt like her stormy eyes were boring into me.

One thing came to my mind, _she is beautiful._

"Hey! Percy," Nico greeted me, "this is –"

The new girl cut him off.

"Annabeth. Annabeth Chase." _Wow, _I thought, _her voice is beautiful._

"Hi, Annabeth. Nice to meet you. I'm Percy, Percy Jackson," I told her.

I saw Nico and Thalia exchange glances. I shot them a confused look and Thals mouthed _tell you later._

"So, Percy, would you like to be Annabeth's guide for the day?" Thalia asked, smirking at me.

"Uuh um… sure, why not?" I told them. I saw Annabeth blush slightly, but I ignored it.

"Great! She's a Sophmore by the way."

"Well, if she's in your year, why don't you be her guide?" I asked Thalia, confused as to why I should be the guide.

"Because I already compared schedules and your classes are closest to each other. I don't have any of them same classes as Annabeth."

"Why," Annabeth asked turning towards me with a cocky expression on her face, "are you too good to be seen with a girl a year younger than you?"

"No! I just… I thought it might be, you know… weird to have me as your guide," I told her. Nico and Thalia were watching us with amused looks.

"Well, I don't mind, just as long as I can get to class on time."

"Well then," Thalia piped in "that's settled then."

With that she turned and started walking down the hallway with Nico in tow.

"He's not very social is he?" Annabeth asked me after a few seconds of awkward silence.

"Who, Nico? Nah, not really. He gets like that around strangers. When he gets to know you he'll probably talk more."

Another awkward silence followed.

"So…" Annabeth began "you're a junior, right? And Thalia is your cousin?"

"Yes to both." Awkward pause. "So how did you meet Thalia? Or did she just happen to be in the office when you arrived?"

She laughed, "Actually, we met at a summer camp a while ago. We kinda lost contact and I haven seen her in years, living in California and everything."

"Oh, that's cool. What class do you have first?" I wanted to make sure that she wasn't late for her first class at a new school.

Annabeth pulled her timetable out of her bag and scanned it quickly.

"Uum… Advanced Maths with Mrs Tucker, room 52."

"Thalia was right, our classes are mostly close by. My first lesson is Biology in lab 2, just along the hall," I told her while comparing our timetables over her shoulder.

"So should we get going?" Annabeth looked up at me and asked. It was only when she suddenly stepped back did I realise how close we had actually been to each other. I felt my face heat up slightly, as did hers. We turned and I started leading her down the hall to our homerooms.

"Oh, uh, yeah. The bell will go soon. Which homeroom are you in?"

"Mrs Small in room 55," she told me.

"Great! I'm next door to you!" I told her smiling. "A warning about Mrs Small: she is not small! And if you misbehave in her class she puts you in the 'invisible row' at the back of the room and ignores you."

"Are you serious? She actually does that?" she paused and I nodded. "Have you ever been in the 'invisible row'?"

"Yes, I was for the second half of last year."

"Shame, poor you." I could hear the teasing in her voice.

I said goodbye to Annabeth outside her homeroom before going into mine.

I sat down in my desk, ignoring the people around me.

_This cant be happening_ I though, _no way._

I knew this feeling. It was attraction. What you felt when you liked someone. I had felt it every time I had seen a good looking girl in the last year and a half, so I had asked them out and then after a week or two let them down. _I promised to stop this. You're imagining it, Percy. It's not real_ I tried to convince myself. I wasn't working though, and I was hoping that this was real and not just cause she was pretty.

After spending the whole homeroom period sitting and thinking about Annabeth, I knew it wasn't fake, or just because she was pretty or anything.

I had to admit it to myself.

_I liked Annabeth Chase after knowing her for all of a half hour._

**A.N.: **_so there you have it! _

_These teacher's names are actually teachers at my school. And Mrs Small is the biggest teacher at school. And she does have an invisible row. And since her class is on the top floor she also threatens to throw people out of the windows. The irony is she has a "There are no invisible children in South Africa" poster on the wall at the back. The joke is that her classroom is in a different country._

_And the head boy told us last year during orientation that Mrs Tucker's surname is spelt with a 'T' and not an 'F'. _

_Anyway this seems like this is the chapter with the long author's notes. _

_So please review _

_Peace out, guys xx_


	6. Chapter 6

**OUTLAW: RUNNING FROM LOVE**

**Chapter 6**

**A.N.: **_Hey! Here's chapter 6. There is some of what happened in the last chapter, cause I had to put that into Annabeth's POV too. I have a one-shot in progress, which will be up soon. _

_Two things: first, is that I have realised that most fan accounts on Twitter represent Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Harry Potter, The Hunger Games and sometimes Narnia. I have never seen a fan account, which also supports Twilight. Never. So it seems that Twilight is in a different league. _

_Second: the day I posted the last chapter, I fell asleep with my phone in my hand. I woke up at 3am with 10 email notifications saying that I have author alerts, story alerts, favourite stories and reviews! I swear I have never been so happy at 3am!_

_So a huge thank you to everybody who reviewed! _

_I forgot the disclaimer in the last chapter. Oops? But you guys know I'm not Rick, so…_

**Disclaimer: **_I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. I'm not a dude, so really its not even possible._

_On with the story!_

**ANNABETH POV:**

Getting through arrivals was surprisingly fast. In almost no time, we had collected our luggage and were leaving the airport in a rental car. I had always wanted too see the Big Apple, but I never imagined that I would ever live here! I mean, its one of the most well know cities in the world. And the architecture is incredible! Seriously, have you seen the Empire State Building or the museums here?

We arrived at our new home after sitting in New York traffic for about an hour. The new apartment had three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a dining room/T.V. room and a small patio outside the T.V. room from which we had a beautiful view of the city.

I stood in the doorway of the kitchen looking at the dining room, wondering if I would be happy here, while Bobby and Matthew were running around trying to see everything at once.

"Annabeth? Do you want to see your new room?" Cheryl asked me. I turned around to look at her.

"Yeah, sure. When is the furniture arriving?"

"Probably later this afternoon. Then you can start unpacking and decorating." Cheryl smiled at me.

I nodded eagerly, picked up my suitcase, my laptop bag and my carry on bag and followed her down the hallway.

We stopped at the second door on the left. My stepmother pushed the door open and lead me inside. I think my jaw dropped. The room was beautiful! The walls were painted a silvery light grey colour. There was a cupboard on one side of the room, which was built into the wall. And opposite that was a window, which looked out onto the other side of the city to the patio.

"Do you like it?" Cheryl asked me. She sounded like she wanted my approval on this. I think she felt slightly guilty about her and Dad uprooting the family and moving across the country.

"Its beautiful! I love I love the colour," I replied. "Did you know that this room looked like this?" I wanted to know.

"The advert had the colours of all the rooms listed," she explained. "And when your father and I saw there was one with silver walls we thought you might like it."

"Thank you! So much," I said, hugging her.

"It's a pleasure, Annabeth," she said smiling as she pulled away. "I'd better go check on your brothers. Pray they haven't destroyed their room yet…"

I laughed as she walked out, leaving the door open behind her.

I sat down on the floor with my back against the wall and un-zipped my laptop bag. I took out my computer and began looking through all the pictures I had of my favourite buildings and monuments.

After about half an hour, some of our furniture started arriving. Beds, sofas, Dad's ugly old armchair he refused to get rid of, as well as the T.V., refrigerator and microwave oven. After most of our furniture and boxes had arrived, I set about organising my room.

My father put some shelves up for me to put my books and models on, I moved my bed to next to the cupboard and across from the window. My desk went next to the window and I put my clothes in my cupboard.

I pulled a plastic folder out of my backpack. Inside, were a bunch of pictures I had printed off the Internet, pictures of my favourite architecture and my family and Hazel and I. Out of a pouch I took a lump of sticky tack to put the pictures up with. I had done this back in Frisco too.

After sticking all my pictures on the wall around my desk, I went into the kitchen for dinner. I had school the next morning. And honestly, I wasn't looking forward to it very much. I just hoped it would be better than my last school…

The next morning I woke up to get ready earlier than usual. After all, it was my first day.

After showering and washing and drying my hair, I picked out my clothes for the day. I decided on my favourite pair of dark blue skinny jeans, my white lace cami, an orange tank top and my most comfortable pair of grey flats. I carefully took my new earrings and necklace and put them on.

When I arrived in the kitchen, Cheryl had a bowl of cereal waiting for me. I greeted her and picked the bowl up off the counter top and sat down at the table.

"Morning, Annabeth." She replied. "You look very nice today. Is that the jewellery from Hazel?"

"Mm hm." I nodded with my mouth full. I swallowed before saying, "Thank you. You don't think its too simple?" I wasn't really good with fashion, so I wanted my step mom's opinion.

"Honey, you look great! And don't worry, school will be better than you think."

I nodded silently and finished my cereal. My dad and brothers came into the kitchen to eat before they were supposed to leave for school. Dad would be driving them. I was walking, as my new school, Goode High, was only a few blocks away. I have to admit I had mixed feelings about walking to school. It would be nice to have some freedom, but I wasn't really sure if I would know where to go. New York is huge, and easy to get lost in.

Dad and Cheryl had assured me that I would be fine, and that if I just walked straight I would find Goode, no problem. That relaxed me a little.

I put my bowl in the sink and ran to the bathroom to brush my teeth and then to my room to collect my books. I hugged Dad and Cheryl goodbye and waved to my brothers before heading out the door.

I arrived at school in no time. I had to admit, I had been worried for nothing. And anyway, you couldn't miss Goode. The big brick building had big bronze letters spelling 'Goode High School' above the main entrance. It looked nice enough. There was a sport field next to the main building that had football posts with soccer nets attached to the bottoms and a running track around it in front of the stands.

I walked in through the gates. A few people looked at me, making me feel self-conscious. But I noticed that they weren't mocking looks, or looks of pity or hate. They were curious, friendly and (in the case of some boys) awe. I don't know why they were looking at me like that, I mean I'm really not that pretty.

Just then I hear a familiar voice.

"Annabeth? Oh, my gosh! No _way_!" I turned around to be almost knocked down by a girl dressed almost entirely in black, except for her silver jewellery and purple shirt. The girl threw her arms around me, pulling me into a bone-crushing hug. She pulled back and I finally saw who she was.

"Thalia?" I asked the girl. "I haven't seen you in ages! How are you?" I grinned at my old friend.

"I've been great! And how are you? Did you move here?" she looked exited at the thought. I must admit, I missed this crazy girl. We'd met at a summer camp about five years ago, but after I had moved from Virginia to California and her to New York, we sorta lost contact.

"Yes, we arrived yesterday. I can't believe that we're actually at the same school!"

"Wow, I can't believe it!"

Just then we were interrupted by a boy clearing his throat.

"Oh this is Nico di Angelo, my boyfriend," Thalia gushed. From what I remembered about her, she didn't gush. Ever. She must really like this guy.

"Nico, this is Annabeth. I went to camp with her a few years ago."

"Hey." Nico looked like a male Thalia, only more emo than punk. He was wearing all black clothes, and even his sticking out underwear was black. He was good-looking, but not particularly attractive to me.

"Hi, Nico. Its nice to meet you," I told him. He just nodded in response.

"Come on, lets go wait by Percy's locker," Thalia said before grabbing Nico's had and walking towards the main doors.

"I need to get my schedule and sign in at the office first," I told Thalia and Nico. "And who's Percy?"

"My cousin and Nico's friend. I'll show you to the office." Thalia led us of to the office.

After retrieving my schedule and signing in at the front office, I walked with my two new friends to my locker, which incidentally was right next to Percy's. I packed my books in and took out what I would need for the first lesson.

The three of us were just talking, when the hottest guy I had ever seen was walking towards us. _Where did that come from? _I thought. I never called people hot. But he was amazingly good-looking. He had messy black hair, hanging slightly in his eyes, breathtaking sea-green eyes and a perfect tan.

Nico and Thalia had their backs to him, so I couldn't ask them who he was. They would have to turn around and that would attract attention. Though he seemed to be walking over to us. He also appeared to be looking at me… but that was impossible. Why would someone as handsome as him even want to look at me?

"Hey! Percy," Nico greeted him. "this is-"

I cut him off.

"Annabeth. Annabeth Chase." _Wow, _I thought, _his eyes are amazing!_

"Hi, Annabeth. Nice to meet you. I'm Percy, Percy Jackson," I said, smiling at me. _So this is Percy…_

Nico and Thalia exchanged glances. He shot them a confused look and Thalia mouthed something to him. Probably _new girl _or something.

"So, Percy, would you like to be Annabeth's guide for the day?" Thalia asked, smirking at him.

"Uuh um… sure, why not?" he replied. I felt myself blush slightly, but I tried to ignore it. _Chill _I told myself.

"Great! She's a Sophmore by the way."

"Well, if she's in your year, why don't you be her guide?" He asked Thalia. He looked a bit confused.

"Because I already compared schedules and your classes are closest to each other. I don't have any of them same classes as Annabeth."

"Why," I asked, turning towards Percy, grinning at him, "are you too good to be seen with a girl a year younger than you?"

"No! I just… I thought it might be, you know… weird to have me as your guide," he tried to cover up his embarrassment. Nico and Thalia were watching us with amused looks.

"Well, I don't mind, just as long as I can get to class on time."

"Well then," Thalia piped in "that's settled then."

With that she turned and started walking down the hallway with Nico in tow.

"He's not very social is he?" I asked Percy after a short awkward silence.

"Who, Nico? Nah, not really. He gets like that around strangers. When he gets to know you he'll probably talk more."

Another awkward silence followed.

"So…" I began "you're a junior, right? And Thalia is your cousin?"

"Yes to both." Awkward pause. "So how did you meet Thalia? Or did she just happen to be in the office when you arrived?"

I laughed at the way he said that. It was nice that he was trying to keep the conversation going. "Actually, we met at a summer camp a while ago. We kinda lost contact and I haven seen her in years, living in California and everything."

"Oh, that's cool. What class do you have first?" he asked me.

I took my schedule out of my backpack and read it quickly.

"Uum… Advanced Maths with Mrs Tucker, room 52."

"Thalia was right, our classes are mostly close by. My first lesson is Biology in lab 2, just along the hall," he told me while looking at my timetable over my shoulder.

"So should we get going?" I asked as I looked up at him. I noticed how close we actually were to each other. I felt my face heat up, and I saw that his also turned slightly red. We turned around and he started leading me down the hallway.

"Oh, uh, yeah. The bell will go soon. Which homeroom are you in?"

"Mrs Small in room 55," I answered him.

"Great! I'm next door to you!" he smiled at me. "A warning about Mrs Small: she is not small! And if you misbehave in her class she puts you in the 'invisible row' at the back of the room and ignores you."

"Are you serious? She actually does that?" I paused and he nodded. "Have you ever been in the 'invisible row'?"

"Yes, I was for the second half of last year."

"Shame, poor you." I said in a joking manner. I was surprised that it was so easy for me to talk to him. After all, I had no experience with boys.

Percy said goodbye to me outside my homeroom before walking into his with a smile on his face.

_Wow, _I thought.

Reality struck me as I sat down in an empty seat. _My first crush…_

**A.N.: **_wow that was a long chapter! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. I'm sorry if it got a little boring in some parts, but I think they were necessary. I did that on my wall by the way, the picture thing by Annabeth's desk. Most of them are of Logan Lerman and the Percy Jackson cast and other photography pictures I found and liked._

_I know that in the last chapter Percy didn't notice the earrings and necklace, but I thought that boys in general usually take in the basics of a girls appearance. No offence meant boys _

_Any who, please review and ask questions or PM me _

_Peace out my lovely readers xx_

_P.S. I love smiley faces _


	7. Chapter 7

**OUTLAW: RUNNING FROM LOVE**

**Chapter 7**

**A.N.: **_Hey, hey, hey! I'm very sorry that I didn't update last weekend, but I have valid excuses so hear me out: there was no electricity on Sunday, which meant that I had no Internet. I would have updated on Saturday, but I didn't have this chapter typed up yet. _

_Thank you to everybody who favourited the story (and my new one-shot) and subscribed to the story. I really appreciate it!_

_Somebody reviewed saying that New York is freezing and that Annabeth would freeze in a tank top. I made her wear that for three reasons: 1 – that is a popular outfit at my school. 2 - the story is set in maybe the second week of school after the summer holidays and coming from Cali, I would guess anybody wouldn't be quite used to the colder weather and she would probably expect it would be warmer than it ends up being. 3 – there is a very Percabeth-y reason for her not having a jacket or hoodie. I probably gave something away, but you will find out soon enough._

_And most of the teachers I use will be based on my teachers at school. And believe me: we have some weird teachers! _

_Oh and not every chapter will be re-written into the other persons POV._

**Disclaimer: **_I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Full rights and credits got to Mr Rick Riordan, genius that he is._

**PERCY POV:**

Homeroom seemed to drag, which surprised me because it usually passes very quickly. Mrs Sass gave us the announcements and went to sit behind her desk for the rest of the lesson, shushing us on occasion.

I sat in my seat near the back, stuck in my daydream. Well, really they were 'complicated thoughts', not daydreams. But I was still totally oblivious to what was happening in the space around me.

_Do I really like her? Or is it just that I'm attracted to her? _I asked myself. _You just met her! Think logically, man!_

My pep talk to myself wasn't working too well. I kept thinking of her beautiful eyes and her stunning laugh and her gorgeous hair and her –

"Perce!"

"Whoa!" I jumped, startled by someone calling me.

"Dude, finally! I was going to throw a book at your head or something soon!"

It was Grover Underwood, my best friend other than Nico.

"What is it G-Man?" I asked him, slightly annoyed that he had interrupted my train of thought.

"I called you, like, ten times and you didn't answer. Got someone on your mind then, huh?" he asked, winking at me and nudging me in the ribs.

"No." But I could feel my cheeks starting to colour.

"You were! Who is it?" Grover asked me.

"Just some girl I met this morning…" I mumbled in response, not wanting too many people to hear.

"Dude, you look like, I dunno, almost in love. Like you were when you first met Rachel," Grover told me.

I groaned and put my head down on my desk. "Dude! Don't tell me stuff like that! Remember I told you I wasn't going to date unless I was serious?"

"Yep, but you looked like you were thinking of her seriously just now. I think this is different."

"Grover, I don't even know if this is just a crush, or… I don't know… I just don't want to hurt anybody else like I did Calypso and all those other girls. I never felt guilty before, but now- I really hate myself for that." Here I was, almost pouring my heart out to one of my best friends in a crowded classroom where anybody could over hear us at anytime.

Luckily, the bell rang just then. I grabbed my bag and headed out of homeroom with Grover trailing after me.

Annabeth was already standing outside Mrs Small's room waiting for me. I swear I saw her smile wider when she saw me.

"Dude, that's her." I motioned to Grover.

"Who? The really pretty blonde?" Grover asked me.

"Yeah."

He whistled softly. "Percy, man, if I wasn't totally in love with Juniper you would have had to have been worried."

I waved goodbye to Grover as he headed off to Nature Study at the other end of the school. I took a deep breath, and walked up to Annabeth, who had leant against the wall while she waited for me.

"Hey," she greeted me.

"Hi." I smiled at her. We stood awkwardly for a while, just looking into each others eyes, until she looked down, blushing slightly.

"So… Mrs Tucker now?" I asked her.

"Yep. What do you have now?"

"Business Economics with Miss Kennedy. She's just a bit further down the hall than Tucker. C'mon." I started leading her down the hall.

We walked in silence for about a minute. I was trying to think of something cool and funny to say, but I couldn't think of anything. I was just going to tell her that her eyes ruined her perfect California Girl image, but that I liked them, when she saved me some embarrassment.

"Lets play a game."

I looked at her for a few seconds, wondering if she was serious. She looked back at me with those beautiful eyes. She narrowed her eyes as if to ask why I hadn't responded yet.

"What kind of game?" I asked her. She didn't seem like the type of person to suggest doing something that would get us into trouble.

She smiled and said, "20 Questions. I think it's a fun way of finding out more about people."

"OK," I replied. "You first."

It didn't take long after that to get to out next classes. By the time we had arrived I'd learned that she was definitely not a 'dumb blonde', she had two half brothers, her mom had died when she was really young and she liked owls.

She learned that I lived with my mom and step dad, my real dad had been a Navy Seal and was lost at sea and that I was captain of the swimming team.

Not really a lot of interesting information, but at least we knew more about each other now.

As usual, Miss Kennedy was acting insane. She walked into class a few minutes late (she doesn't have a homeroom class so she stays in the teachers lounge when she doesn't have classes to teach) looked at the broom propped up against the blackboard in front of a wall plug and said, "Oh, look! It's my mode of transport. And its charging!"

I started laughing. A few people looked at her blankly or with confused expressions. Most of the class had learned that if you don't get one of her jokes: laugh anyway. If you took to long to catch the joke or started fake laughing too late she would ask if you got it or not and usually embarrass you.

"Don't worry, I know some of you wont get that one," said Miss Kennedy before starting an extremely boring lesson on different kinds of tax.

xxxx

After walking Annabeth to the rest of her morning classes, we had become much less awkward and much more relaxed around each other. It felt to me almost like I had known her for a long time, instead of feeling like I had just met her this morning. We played 20 Questions between each class, and pretty soon I knew a heap load of stuff about her.

I met her outside the physics lab and lead her to the cafeteria at lunch.

"Did you bring your own lunch?" I asked her.

"Yes, I always do. Why? Is the food _really _bad or something?" she wanted to know.

"Yes. And believe me, I know! The only safe stuff to eat in this place is what comes out of the vending machines," I warned Annabeth.

She laughed at that. _Gosh, she has an amazing laugh_ I thought.

I really need to snap out of it. Nothing can happen between us until I work out whether or not this is just a simple crush, or if I really like this girl and could be with her. Since Rachel, serious relationships had been a problem area for me. I could never commit. Its not that I wanted things to end up this way, but I made my choices and this is how life is for me. If I could change what happened, believe me I would have never hurt so many people. But I can't change anything and now I have to live with the guilt.

We had almost reached the cafeteria when Annabeth asked me, "Have you ever had a girlfriend?"

I was stunned for a second. _Why is she asking me that?_ But then I realised that we were still in 20 Questions mode.

"Yeah." I didn't really want to tell her the long and sad tale of my bad relationships, but I figured I would have to sooner or later. But now wasn't the time.

"I've had a few, but I don't really want to talk about it. I'll tell you some other time OK?" I said looking at her.

"OK, deal," she told me, putting her hand out for me to shake.

I reached out and took her hand, but before I could shake and after my fingers had closed around hers, I felt a tingle, a little weaker than a static electricity shock. And judging by the look on her face, she felt it too. I pulled my hand away pretty quickly after that.

"What about you? Any boyfriend left behind in San Francisco?" I asked her, trying to lighten the suddenly slightly tense atmosphere.

She chuckled. "No, not me. No boys were interested in me back in Frisco."

That surprised me. Annabeth was, no doubt about it, pretty. Beautiful even! I found it hard to believe that she didn't have a boyfriend she'd had to leave behind when she moved here.

"You're kidding me?" I asked her before I could stop myself. "Have you never had a boyfriend? Ever?"

She shook her head no. "Why do you seem so shocked?" she asked me.

"Well I… ah- I don't see how no guys at your old school could have thought you were pretty." I decided to tell her the truth. Lies always get found out and I couldn't think of a good excuse anyway.

"Really?" she asked me.

I nodded in response. She smiled again, but her face was partially hidden by her hair. What I could see of her cheeks, they were red. And I'm guessing mine were too.

"Thank you, Percy. No guy has ever been as nice to me as you have," she told me softly.

"Then they were obviously blind," I said looking at her again. This made her blush even more. Fortunately, to save us from any more awkwardness, we arrived at Nico and Thalia and my regular table. Nico and Thalia were already waiting for us.

"Hey," greeted Thalia with a smile. Nico just nodded in our direction.

"Seriously, Nico? Can't you be a little more social?" Thalia asked her boyfriend.

Nico then looked at us where we had just sat down and said, "Hello, Percy. Hello, Annabeth. Happy now, Thals?"

Thalia grinned before kissing Nico's cheek. "Yes. You need to work on your social skills."

Annabeth and I laughed at that. Then Thals started laughing too, while Nico sat there asking what the joke was, only making us laugh harder.

After showing Annabeth around for the rest of the day, I realised something. I was feeling like I had with Rachel, not like when I was with those other girls. Maybe Grover was right? Maybe I could try again with Annabeth…

But it couldn't work! Could it…?

**A.N.: **_I hope you enjoyed it! And by the way, Miss Kennedy really did do that thing with the broom. She's the weirdest teacher in school!_

_The next chapter will have less talking in it I think and longer paragraphs. _

_I think this is one of the longest chapters so far… well it feels like it._

_Next chapter will probably be up on the weekend sometime._

_Until then, peace out Percabeth lovers! _

_xox_


	8. Chapter 8

**OUTLAW: RUNNING FROM LOVE**

**Chapter 8**

**A.N.: **_hello again! I hope you all enjoyed the last chapter. Turns out it was the second longest chapter so far._

_Please forgive me if I don't update very much over the next few weeks because I'm in the process of writing exams. I have twelve in total, and three have been written. I write one a day, so it will be another two weeks before they are over. _

_Truth be told, you guys (and girls) are lucky I'm even doing this now! It's Tuesday and I have Natural Science tomorrow, which I kinda need to study for. We get time before the exam, but I haven't even started yet. I had this typed up yesterday, but my account wouldn't log in so I couldn't update. Did anybody else have this problem?_

_I'm a very dedicated person, so I feel bad if I don't post something every week, but I might not be able to._

_Anyway, read on!_

**Disclaimer: **_is this necessary? The fact that I'm South African should be enough to prove I'm not Rick. And I'm a girl. So, duh, I don't own PJO._

**ANNABETH POV:**

I was surprised that Percy was surprised when I told him that I'd never had a boyfriend before and that no guys back at my old school had been interested in me. I was even more surprised when he said they were blind to not think of me as pretty. I mean, come on! Here is Percy Jackson, one of the most popular guys in school due to sport and good looks, and he thought I was pretty. Plain old boring me. _Pretty._

For me, coming from a place where I was shunned for being smarter than average and on the first day here there's already one guy telling me that I'm pretty… that is really weird fro me. I can actually _talk _to him, which is miraculous in itself.

The rest of the day went by surprisingly fast, probably because Percy was there to meet me after each class. We quickly became even more comfortable around each other, and by the end of the day we were laughing like old friends.

Something I had noticed though, was that I had been getting dirty looks from some of the girls in the hallways and in classes. Mostly the ones who were caked in makeup. Something I had noticed over the last year back in Cali was that all the 'natural' girls were the ones in steady relationships with good guys. The ones who you had to squint through all the makeup to see were the ones who went from jock to jock, getting a new boyfriend almost every week. That seemed to be the case here too.

The more natural looking girls gave me either looks of wonder or warning. By the time it was last period, I wanted to know what was up with the funny looks. My last class was biology, and my lab partner was a petit brunette girl called Juniper Flouring. Her boyfriend, Grover Underwood, was a friend of Percy's.

"You want to know why all the girls have been looking at you funny, don't you?" Juniper asked out of the blue. As far as 'natural' goes, Juniper was as natural as you could get. Her pencil bag was covered with doodled peace signs, hearts and flowers and badges with 'Go Green!' 'Recycle!' and 'World Peace' on them. She didn't have any makeup on at all either.

"Well, yeah. I've only been here one day. What could I have done wrong already?" I replied.

"You have Percy Jackson as your guide," Juniper told me. "Most girls here, well the popular ones who bathe in makeup anyway, would kill for him to just talk to them, or look at them even."

I looked down at my worksheet, staying silent.

"And then you arrive, new girl and everything, and he's acting so natural around you…" she continued.

"So they're jealous? Of me?" I asked. I was still trying to process this. The popular girls were jealous of me. That didn't work out right, so I thought it through again. "That makes no sense. At all! I'm… the nerd! The boring, plain weirdo! They can't be jealous of _me_!"

"Maybe you should take a closer look." Juniper smiled at me.

"Ok, starting to sound… believable. But then why are the other girls looking at me differently. Its like they're surprised or trying to warn me or something," I explained.

"Well, maybe surprise because he is acting like he did with one of his past girlfriends with you. And maybe warning because of the rep he's earned himself," Juniper told me.

"What rep?"

"I think it would be better if he told you in his own time. Now, what kinds of fish do dolphins generally eat?"

And that was the end of our conversation.

Xxxx

I hadn't realised how chilly it got here in the afternoons. I stood by my locker, shivering slightly, while I packed my books in. Percy was standing next to me at his locker, taking out the books he would need for homework.

"Are you ok?" He turned towards me, his beautiful green eyes boring into mine.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just didn't expect it to be this cold in the afternoons here." I smiled at him.

"You want to wear my jacket?" he asked, some concern in his eyes.

"No, really, I'm fine." I smiled again, trying not to shiver.

We closed our lockers and walked out of the school in a comfortable silence. When we got outside, the wind came up and I started shivering again.

"Are you su-" I cut him off.

"Yeah, really. Don't worry."

"Where do you live?" Percy asked me.

I told him the name of the apartment complex I was staying in.

"Really? I live there too! Which apartment is yours?" he asked me excitedly.

"2D, what's yours?" I asked him with a grin on my face.

"3F." He smiled. "Can I walk you home then?"

"Sure," I told him smiling.

We had walked about a block when it started getting really cold. I shivered some more, but I tried not to so that Percy wouldn't notice. I felt so stupid for not taking a jacket with me to school. After all, this is New York.

We carried on walking, but suddenly Percy stopped and started to unzip his jacket.

"I'm not letting you walk home on the cold," he said as he handed me his Goode High School purple and white letterman jacket. He had a hoodie on underneath.

"Fine," I said taking it from him and putting it on. "And… thank you." I pulled the collar up around my neck, noting what it smelled like. The sea, some kind of nice deodorant and chocolate chip cookies. I did up the buttons and started to put my hands in my pockets, but as I was about to, my hand brushed against Percy's and I felt that shock again.

I was about to pull my hand back, but before I could he took it in his.

"Your hands are freezing." He started rubbing my hand with his thumb. It felt nice and his hands were warm, and I'm sure my face was red.

When we arrived at the complex, I headed towards the elevator, pulling Percy with me. He stopped moving though when he saw where I was dragging him.

"Uuh, Annabeth?" I turned to face him, my hand still in his. It had stopped being awkward a while ago.

"What is it, Percy?"

"I'm kind of claustrophobic, so, if you don't mind… could we take the stairs?" He looked so cute with that worried look in his eyes. I couldn't say no, but then I didn't even consider saying no.

"Sure." I smiled and hand in hand we walked up two floors to get to my apartment.

We stopped outside my door. I gently pulled my hand out of his, missing how it felt immediately. _Annabeth! Snap out of it! You've only known him for a day! You're acting like a love struck weirdo. You aren't even his girlfriend. _

I turned to face him. I was just about to say goodbye, when he asked,

"So, would you like to walk to school together tomorrow? We can play 20 Questions again if you like," he tempted.

I laughed, "Sure. I'd better go in though, my step mom will be waiting."

I turned and fished my key out of a pocket in my backpack. Percy had started walking backwards towards the stairs leading up to the next floor. "See you tomorrow, Annabeth." He grinned.

"See you tomorrow, Percy."

I opened the door to find Cheryl standing in the kitchen.

"Hi, Annabeth. Who was that outside?" she asked me. Typical. She always got straight to the point.

"Oh, just a friend from school. He lives one floor up," I aid as I grabbed a granola bar out of the cupboard.

"A 'he' huh?" she asked me. "What's his name?"

"Percy," I said. "Percy Jackson."

"And is that Percy's jacket you're wearing?" asked my ever curious stepmother.

"Oh, yeah. It got cold after school and he gave it to me to wear while we were walking home," I explained.

"I see. And how was school?" Cheryl was like that, when she knew what she wanted to know, next subject. "Do you like it?"

I smiled. "I'm pretty sure I'm going to love it here."

**A.N.: **_chapter 8 already! Wow… seems like it hasn't been that long since chapter one. Well to me anyway._

_Oh, a special shout out to **crazylove27**! She has reviewed the most and always leaves a nice comment, so thank you a million! You have no idea how nice it is to get emails with nice reviews on them. _

_And I will be putting a poll up soon for you to vote what my next story should be. This one is far from done, but I want to start working on another one in advance so updates will be quicker. _

_There is already a poll up, voting for your favourite story of mine so far, just for general interest. So please vote?_

_Thanks for reading._

_Xoxo_

_P.S. save the rhino cuz they are the real unicorns (:_


	9. Chapter 9

**OUTLAW: RUNNING FROM LOVE**

Chapter 9

**A.N.: **hello again! I just want to say _**THANK YOU **_to everybody who reviewed the last chapter. I had the most reviews I've ever gotten for a chapter! And also thank you to everybody who favourited and subscribed, it means a lot!

My exams are almost over! And then its school holidays! Only two exams left! I've written twn already, and my neck is sore, my butt is sore and my right hand is sore. Enough complaining.

I've decided to reply to some reviews, so here it goes:

**MashPotaoeSquishBananna: **first, interesting name… Ha ha, don't worry there will be some Percabeth soon! And possibly some more Thalico too. And please don't kill me! I am officially scared! Thanks for the review (:

**N. E. Laurent: **I'm glad you enjoyed it! And thank you for the good luck message, I think it's working :P

Lovesix: thank you! I'm really amazed that you think my stories are amazing! (:

crazylove27: being my best reviewer so far I had to recognise you! I also don't log in sometimes, especially if I'm on my phone, it is too much work! And I'm glad someone agrees that rhinos are unicorns (:

WordGodess: there are lots of ways to help save the rhinos. In South Africa, in the shops there are shopping bags you can buy and the money goes towards conservation. There are also beaded bracelets made by African women with a rhino bead on them. They create job opportunities and money goes towards the rhino conservation too. I'm sure that if you Google it, you can find lots of ways to help the real unicorns. I can also PM you a website to check out. And also: I'm really happy that you've been enjoying my story (:

glitter puppy: I'm glad you like it! I have been trying to write longer chapters, but with exams and me wanting to update, for now they might not be much longer, but I am aiming to make them longer (:

And like I've said before, I have put a poll up, so please vote for which story you would like next! I will try to write all of them at some point, but I'm not sure which to post when this story is done. Which is why I need your help! You can vote on the poll, PM me or in a review. I would really appreciate it!

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, Rick wouldn't let me own PJO. So I don't.

ANNABETH POV:

After my talk with Cheryl, I went to my room. I hadn't had contact with Hazel yet, so I decided that I would text her.

_Hey! How've you been? I really want to talk. Skype? _

_From Annabeth_

I pressed send and waited for her reply.

The reply came within five minutes.

_Annabeth! Good to hear from you! Love to Skype, you online?_

_Hazel x_

I didn't reply, instead I went straight to my laptop. After starting it up and waiting for it to load, I logged in to Skype and selected Hazel's contact. I pressed _video call_ and waited for her to accept. While I waited I wondered what I would tell her. _Should I tell her about Percy?_

"Hey!" I looked up to see Hazel's smiling face looking back at me.

"Hi," I told her. "How are you?"

"Well, its weird not having you at school. But I'm fine," she told me, still smiling.

We talked for a little while about small things, like what was happening at my old school and how my first day at Goode High was. I told her about Thalia being my old friend from a summer camp and how Percy was my guide for the day. When we started talking about Percy, I could feel my cheeks heating up slightly.

"Annabeth, you're blushing," Hazel told me, grinning now.

I put my hands on my cheeks and blushed even more.

"Is he hot?" she asked.

"Hazel! You know I don't get like that about guys!" I could feel my blush getting worse, but I tactfully tried to ignore it.

"C'mon, Annabeth! I can see that you like him! You cant hide it from me, I'm your best friend," she said knowingly.

I sighed, "OK, so maybe he is really good looking, and sweet, and thoughtful…" I trailed off in a very unlike me fashion. I met him today and here I am, day dreaming about him! a boy had never had this effect on me before, but then I meet Percy… and this happens.

"You're in dream land, Annabeth." Hazel's voice brought me back out of my stupor.

"Sorry," I said sheepishly.

"Tell me what happened!" Hazel demanded excitedly.

So I told her about our 20 Questions games, how we lived in the same apartment complex, how we walked home together and how Percy gave me his jacket. Hazel was almost hopping up and down in excitement while listening to my story.

"Oh, my gosh! Annabeth! He totally likes you!" she almost yelled.

"Oh, please, Hazel. There is no way the coolest guy in Goode High School would like me," I argued. This carried on for a while, but eventually Hazel forced me to admit that it was possible, the tiniest bit possible, that Percy could like me.

"Annabeth! Your father is home!" Cheryl called from the kitchen.

"I've gotta go, but I'll talk to you soon," I told Hazel.

"OK, it was nice talking to you," said Hazel.

"You too. Speak soon," I said before ending the call and closing my laptop, before going into the living room to see my dad.

PERCY POV:

I have to admit, after spending most of the school day with Annabeth, I was buzzing. It was nice. I mean, I could tell her anything and she wouldn't judge me. That I was sure of. We just seemed to click, connect. We seemed to have some sort of mutual understanding of the other. I don't even know how to explain, but… I knew for a fact at the end of that day that I liked her, and I wanted to know her better.

The only thing I was worried about was hurting her. I knew I would have to tell her about Rachel and the girls who followed her. If we were to ever have an honest relationship, I would have to tell her. I just had no idea how I would do that…

I pondered this while I walk up to my, mom and Paul's apartment. When and how would I tell her? I decided that when the time came, I would know the answer to both questions.

I put my key into the lock and unlocked the door. I walked inside, closing the door behind me. I put my keys down on the table beside the door before making my way over to the kitchen to find my mom. She was in the kitchen making dinner.

"Hey," I said, sticking my head around the door. "I'm home."

"Hi, honey!" she smiled widely. "How was your day?" My mom was always happy to see me. I guess after it was just us for quite a while, we were the only ones there for each other. She has Paul now, and he's really cool considering he's my English teacher. Paul is great, he really is, and it's nice to not be struggling so much anymore.

"Kind of cool," I told her.

Mom raised an eyebrow. "Really? How come?" I suppose considering I usually tell her it was boring or uninteresting, this was unusual.

"I had to be the new girls guide," I explained. "She's beautiful."

"Percy," Mom sighed. "I thought you said you were stopping this?"

"I did. And I am. I haven't done anything yet. We just talked, and… it's so easy to talk to her. But I need some advice." I sat down on the counter next to where she was standing.

"What is it, Perce?" she stopped stirring the pot to look at me.

"In this one day that I've known Annabeth I… I really like her. But I'm scared that I'm going to hurt her if I tell her about Rachel and those other girls. I know I'm going to have to tell her at some point. And Mom, when I touch her, it feels like static. But it feels good," I explained to her.

Mom hopped up to sit next to me on the counter. "Percy, to me it sounds like you're in love." She put an arm around my shoulders and smiled. I'm pretty sure I was blushing. "You may have only known her for a day, but if you feel like that about her already, I know that you would never do anything to purposely hurt her."

I looked up at her. "Really? But what should I do?"

"Tell her when the time is right. I have a feeling she will understand." I could tell Mom was loving this. She loves romance, and helping me with 'girl trouble'.

"Thanks, Mom. But should I ask her out?" I had been itching to ask this question. I wanted to, but I didn't want Thalia and Nico and Grocer to think I had given up not being a date and dump. I mean really, this was the first day l as the new me and I was already failing!

"Give it some time," Mom said. "You have plenty time to get to know her better and to decide how you feel about all of this. Her name is Annabeth you said?"

"Yeah," I replied, "Annabeth Chase."

xxxx

Every day that week I walked to school and home afterwards with Annabeth. We began to get very close. I have to admit, it was really nice having someone to talk to every day. She even helped me with homework some days. She proved to me then that she was really smart. Being a year below me in school and being able to understand my work better than I do is amazing.

On that Friday, I decided that it was time to tell her. We had been talking about parents, and how I never knew my dad and she her mom. I'd told her before that my mom had told me that my father had been lost at sea, but she had never really spoken about her mom.

We were walking back home after school, and Annabeth was telling me what she knew about her mother.

"Mom and Dad were high school sweethearts. They got married young, and then my mom got pregnant with me. But she died right after I was born. The pregnancy had been hard on her, and I guess her body just couldn't handle it." She had looked sad when she told me this. I could understand that, after all that's how I felt when I spoke about my real father.

"Hey," I smiled at her, "It's ok to be sad. I know what its like, remember?"

She chuckled softly. That was when I knew it was the right time to tell her.

"You know, before when we met, you asked about my girlfriends?" I asked Annabeth.

"Yeah?"

"I have something to tell you," I stopped walking to face her.

"Come on. Lets go sit and have coffee, and we can talk." Annabeth pulled me over to a small coffee shop. She ordered two cappuccinos and led me over to a table for two.

"So what happened?" she asked when we had sat down.

"Her name was Rachel," I began "We met in middle school, and I liked her right away. I asked her out in freshman year. We were together for two months and I felt like I loved her." Annabeth's expression was unreadable, her grey eyes had a calculating look in them. "I was going to tell her that I loved her, but I caught her cheating." She gasped. "So I broke up with her. Nico and Thalia had never liked her, and I think Thals would have killed Rachel…" I trailed off.

"Then what happened?" Annabeth asked.

"I… I became something I'm not proud of."

Annabeth nodded encouragingly for me to continue.

"I started dating girls for about week and then dumping them. I never felt bad about it until recently. But I promised my mom and Nico and Thals that I would stop it. That was the day before I met you," I finished. "I guess it was my way of dealing with rejection and hurt. But it's still no excuse."

A waitress brought us our coffees and put them down in the table.

"Thank you," Annabeth told her.

We sat in silence for a while, drinking our coffees. I was worried about what she might say, what she might think. She shocked me.

"Percy, I don't think you should dwell on that, it's past. It can't be undone, no matter how hard you want to," she told me.

"I know." I decided to take another huge step, it was now or never any way. And I had just told her all about Rachel and she didn't hate me, so there was nothing to be afraid of.

"This week I've been kind of confused about some stuff," I started, "because I just promised my mom, my friends and myself that I wouldn't date anymore girls unless I was serious about it. But then I met you." I paused to try and see what she was thinking. She looked like she couldn't believe what I was saying.

"What about meeting me?" she asked, not meeting my gaze.

"I feel like I'm whole again. Like I can be myself again," I whispered.

"So," she started tracing invisible circles on the table with her index finger, "what are you trying to tell me?"

"That I like you, Annabeth. A lot. And that I am serious about that."

A.N.: CLIFFHANGER! Sorry to do that to you guys, but it felt right to end the chapter there. I hope you all enjoyed it. I decided to put the two POVs this time to make the chapter a little bit longer.

So anyway, I have only two exams left! I've written ten, all in a row, and it exhausting! My school holidays start on Friday, so I will try to update some more. I will be going to visit my dad, but I will have my laptop with me so I will try to do some writing and posting.

And leave a review! You know you want to (;

xoxo


	10. Chapter 10

Outlaw: Running From Love

Chapter 10

**A.N.: **_Hello again all my wonderful readers! I got 13 reviews for the last chapter! The most I've ever gotten! You have no idea how happy that made me! _

_It's school holidays for the next three weeks, so I will try to write as much as possible. Like I've said before I am going to be visiting my dad (he's visiting from overseas) but when I'm there I will try to still write and update cause I will have my laptop with me._

_I'm also getting my wisdom teeth out (oh, joy) so while I am recovering I will write too._

_I am really sorry about leaving you guys with that horrible cliffhanger, but it was partially writers block. I had no idea what Annabeth would say to that, so I needed some time to think._

_I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint! _

**Disclaimer: **_I do not nor will I ever own the genius that is Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Rick doesn't even answer my questions on Twitter, so there is no way he will give me the series. _

**ANNABETH POV:**

"What about meeting me?" I asked Percy. I couldn't meet his gaze.

"I feel like I'm whole again. Like I can be myself again," he whispered.

"So what are you trying to tell me?" I began tracing invisible circles on the wooded table surface with my index finger.

"That I like you, Annabeth. A lot. And that I am serious about that."

I felt like I couldn't breathe. There was no way he had just said that. It couldn't be true. It just wasn't possible.

I sat in silence, avoiding his searching green eyes. I could feel those beautiful eyes searching me, trying to come to a conclusion of what I would say.

After a while, I took a deep breath and said, "Percy… its too soon."

I looked up to see his eyes looking back into mine.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that I'm not ready for this yet," I explained. "I really like you too Percy but… I just can't do this yet."

I was expecting him to storm out of the café, to never want to speak to me ever again. I thought he would be upset and even shout at me. But Percy didn't do any of those things. He sat there, just watching me. And then he said something I really didn't expect.

"I'll wait for you, Annabeth. When you're ready, just tell me. I'll wait until then."

He said it with so much… sincerity. It almost broke my heart right there and then. I felt so guilty for telling him that I couldn't be with him because I didn't feel like it was the right time. In all honestly, I was more scared than I was unready. But the fact that he said he would wait until I was ready (or not scared anymore) to be with me made my heart soar.

"Thank you, Percy," I smiled slightly, "that means a lot."

He smiled back at me before taking a sip of coffee out of the paper takeaway cup.

We sat in silence for a while, slowly sipping our coffee. Then the silence was broken when Percy asked for help on his homework. So we sat in the little café, doing our homework, enjoying cappuccinos and chocolate croissants. When we had finished all our homework and had about three coffees and two croissants each (well Percy had two, I had one), we got up and went over to the counter to pay.

"No! I'm paying!" Percy insisted when I pulled out my wallet to pay for my portion.

"Percy just let me pay for mine," I begged. But he wouldn't give in. he pay the whole bill and wouldn't even let me put a tip in the decorated jar on the counter top. I huffed as he grabbed my hand and pulled me outside into the chilly September air.

The city was beautiful. Orange, brown, gold and red leaves covered the ground and danced in the air whenever there was a slight breeze. The wind ruffled our hair, blowing my long curls into my face and making Percy's raven locks sway around his ears. The cold wind bit at my ears and nose. I dug my left hand deeper into my jacket pocket. My other hand was still in Percy's warm one.

It was normal for us to walk like this. It was natural, like our way of telling the other that we would be there and always be a comfort to each other. I had told Percy how hard it had been for me at school before I had moved, how strange it was to all of a sudden have a new mom at such a young age and to then have to share her and my dad with two new brothers.

He had told me about how horrible his stepfather had been to him and his mother and the reason behind her marrying him and about his new step dad who was a million times nicer.

We could trust each other and I would even say we had become best friends. We talked about everything, walked to school and home every day. So I wondered why I had been scared to take it further and move into the boyfriend-girlfriend stage. I pondered this as we walked home in silence.

We took the stairs and he said goodbye to me at my door as usual. I went inside to find Cheryl cooking dinner and my dad watching the sports news with the twins.

"Hi, honey," Cheryl greeted me with a smile on her face.

"Hi, Cheryl," I replied. "What's for dinner?"

"Spaghetti Bolognese." My favourite!

"Great!" Then I had an idea. "Can I talk to you? Alone?"

"Yeah, sure."

I hopped up onto the counter next to the stove while she closed the door to make sure the boys wouldn't hear us. I planned on also talking to Hazel, but right now I wanted some motherly advice.

"So, what's bugging you Annabeth?" she asked as she turned back towards me.

I took a deep breath and began. "Well Percy and I have become really close, like best friends. And you said yourself that you think that I like him, and Hazel said the same thing." I hopped off the counter and walked over to lean against the refrigerator.

"Did something happen?" Cheryl asked, concern evident in her voice.

"Well sort of, but we're still friends," I answered.

"So what did happen?"

"He told me about his past girlfriends." I quickly told the story to my step mom. "When he told me everything, he said that he liked me and that he was serious."

"So he asked to be your boyfriend?" Cheryl asked.

"In different words, yes." I nodded.

"Annie, that's wonderful! I mean, you said yes of course," she said matter-of-factly.

I shook my head. Her jaw dropped. I felt tears prickle in my eyelids.

"I told him it was too soon. That I'm not ready for a serious relationship." The tears had begun to roll slowly down m checks. Cheryl crossed the kitchen to pull me into as motherly a hug as she could. I cried into her shoulder while she gently swayed side to side.

"That wasn't the real reason, was it?"

I shook my head, "No. I was scared."

"Scared of what?" she asked gently.

Then I realised what I was really scared of.

"With his past… he could hurt me so… _easily_. He could just be trying to play me, see how far I would go with him. But I _really_ care and I would die if he did that to me."

I was surprised at myself. I usually didn't talk so easily, and Cheryl would have to coax me for ages before I would finally open up to her. And when I did eventually talk, I usually wasn't so tearful and girly and _weak._

I started to sob. Cheryl shushed me and stroked my hair.

"Sweetie… I know these things can be difficult. But I don't think he would have told you about his past if he didn't care." I have to admit, that was good logic.

"He said something else too," I said while pulling back to look my stepmother in the eye. "He said that he would wait for me until I am ready."

"Honey, then you have nothing to worry about!" she exclaimed.

"I know, I just can't do it yet." I dried my eyes on my sleeves. "I'm going to text Hazel. Call me for dinner?"

"Sure thing," she said turning back to the pots on the stove.

Xxxx

I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket as I flopped down on my bed. I scrolled through my contacts until I found the number I wanted. Hazel's.

_Hey, its Annabeth. Can you Skype now?_

I hit send and received a reply in minutes.

_Waiting for you online (:_

So I logged in to my account and called Hazel.

"Hey! Annabeth!" she smiled widely at me, showing off her perfect pearly teeth.

"Hi, Hazel, how are you?" I asked her,

"I'm great, but apparently you aren't. I can see that you've been crying," sh told me knowingly.

"Yes, I have," I admitted.

"What happened?" she asked, concern in her dark eyes.

"Percy told me about his girlfriends," I began. I told Hazel the whole story, of Rachel and the other girls and waiting for me.

"Aw! I _told_ you that he likes you! But why did you say no? I know it isn't because you aren't ready." Hazel knows me too well.

"I was scared, OK? He could hurt me so easily, and I really care about him. I don't know if I could handle him leaving me after a week," I explained.

"But you said that he said that he would wait for you? That doesn't sound like he was kidding around. I think he really_ was_ serious," said Hazel.

"I know, Cheryl said the same thing. But I'm going to give it some time. I'll get to know him more before I decide," I told her.

"I think that's wise," Hazel mused. "But you can't leave it like this forever. You'll have to tell him soon, or he might be gone before you know it."

"But he did say that he would wait," I repeated.

"Boys don't always do what they say."

"You're right," I sighed, "but Percy is different."

"I know," said Hazel. "And it's obvious that he feels the same about you if he told you everything like he did."

"Annabeth! Dinner!" I heard Cheryl call from the kitchen.

"Sorry, time for dinner." I smiled apologetically at Hazel.

"Ha ha, OK. I'll talk to you soon," she said with a grin on her face.

"Bye, Hazel."

"Bye, Annie."

I ended the call and closed my laptop. I walked out of my room and down the hallway to get to the dining room where the table had been set and my family was waiting for me.

As I ate in silence and listened to my brothers telling my parents about school, I zoned out. I realised that I had been stupid to tell Percy that I wasn't ready, but I would wait a little while to make up my mind about when I would tell him that I was ready

A.N.: so what did you guys think?

Thank you to all who reviewed last time: _glitter puppy, johanna101, a. 'x, anon (who thinks that cliff-hangers are EVIL!), Magnificently Beautiful, crazylove27, P3rcyxAnnab3th, N. E. LaurentAvalongirl55, WisestOwl, Mystica Tempest, AwesomeDingo100 and DarkWint3rDream. _

_Thank you to everybody who favourited and subscribed too._

_I am going to start a new one-shot tomorrow, a song fic based on a Taylor Swift song. Any guesses as to which one it will be? Clue: it's a new one (:_

_xoxo_


	11. Chapter 11

**Outlaw: Running From Love**

**Chapter 11**

**A.N.: **_let me start by apologising for not updating when I said that I would: I'm very sorry for not updating when I said I would._

_There._

_I would say feel free to kill me, but I would like to live and if I die, this story will remain unfinished. And I was going to update last night, but the car broke down on the way to my uncle's house and so I couldn't._

_I would like to respond to a few reviews so here it goes:_

**MythologyNerdxDemiGod**: _Thank you so much! I'm really happy that you've stuck with this story since the beginning, it really means a lot. I have been trying to make the chapters longer, but I haven't had much time to do that. Hopefully form now they will be a little longer. And I'm not sure yet if there will be a sequel or not, but on my profile I have other story ideas that you can vote on my poll (:_

**The Reader: **_well thank you for reading and reviewing! I wish it did get more reviews, but I'm happy with what I have so far (:_

**cantwaittilifall: **_please don't check a few times a day! That's pressuring me! Ha ha! I will try to update twice a week while I'm on holiday (:_

**DarkWint3rDream: **_thank you for your review on chapter 9, it as some really good advice. And this last review had me wondering where I mentioned writers block, but then I figured it out! My last A.N. Also, thank you for spending fifteen minutes remembering your password to review "I Promise"!_

**AthenaGray15: **_That review made me laugh so much! The only reason I spell 'favourite' and 'colour' with a 'u' in the middle is because that's they way I was taught to spell them. And sorry that I helped to confuse your little brother…_

**N. E. Laurent: **_you guessed right! I thought about what you said about Annabeth being dramatic, and I agree with you. When I get the chance I will go back and change it. Thanks for pointing that out (:_

_I have a question: how many of you actually read these authors notes? Because maybe I'm spending time typing them up for no reason when I could be writing the story…_

**PERCY POV:**

After dropping Annabeth at her apartment, I walked upstairs to get to mine. All I wanted was to call Thalia and ask her to come over and talk to me. I could talk to my mom but it wasn't the same as talking to someone my own age.

I unlocked the door, put my keys on the table next to the door, hung up my jacket and dropped my backpack on the floor.

"Percy? Is that you?" called my mom from her study. She was writing her second romance novel after the first one was such a huge success. Last night she had been complaining about writers block, but she obviously beat it.

"Yeah, its me." I walked over to the open door, which lead to her study and poked my head in.

My mom smiled when she looked up and saw me. "How was your day?"

I sighed before plopping down in one of the extra chairs she keeps in her study. The one I chose to occupy was one my mom had first gotten when I was a baby. It was a big brown armchair. There were rips in the armrests and stuffing was falling out, but I refused to let Mom and Paul get rid of it.

I looked up at the ceiling and replied with, "I told her."

Mom knew what I meant.

"And?" she asked, leaning forward over her desk. "What happened? I'm judging from your expression that it wasn't how you planned it?"

I silently shook my head.

"She was really understanding and everything, and she wasn't even angry. But then I told her how I felt about her," I recapped for Mom. "She said it was too soon and that she isn't ready for a relationship."

I got up off the chair and walked over to sit on the desk next to my mom's laptop so I could face her. Her brown eyes were boring into my green ones, looking for the answers she wanted that I apparently wasn't giving.

"I told her I would wait for her," I said.

My mom's face morphed into an expression I would expect to see when I one day tell her that I'm going to propose or something. It was actually quite scary!

'Oh, Percy! That's so sweet!" she said, her voice getting higher than it usually was. I rolled my eyes thinking that I should have expected this from her, the hopeless romantic. I rolled my eyes and got up to leave, not really wanting to be around my mom while she was in this state.

"That gives me a great idea for my next novel! A love story based on you and Annabeth!" she exclaimed.

I winced. "If it becomes a best-seller, I want 50%," I said before quickly backing out of the study.

I heard my mom laugh as I closed the door. I smiled to myself. I guess I am really lucky to have such a cool mom who actually enjoys talking about this sort of stuff.

Now all I had to do was talk to Thalia. I texted her as soon as I had flopped down on my bed. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and scrolled through my contacts looking for my cousin's number. I found it and started to type a message to her.

_Hey, Thals. Need to talk. You free to visit?_

_-P_

Within minutes, I received a reply.

_Meet me the park bench in 10. _

_-T_

I pushed myself off my bed and headed back to the front door. I grabbed my keys and my jacket before calling to my mom to tell her where I would be. I closed and locked the door behind me, and then taking the stairs two at a time until I was out of the building.

I arrived at the park with a few minutes to spare. Of course I knew exactly which park bench Thalia meant. It was the one we always sat on. It was placed in the park under a big oak tree in memory of someone who had died.

I sat on the bench and waited for a few minutes before Thalia showed up.

"Hey," she greeted me.

"Hi, Thals," I told her.

"So what do you want to talk about?" she asked, getting straight to the point.

"I told Annabeth the truth," I told her bluntly.

Thalia stared at me for a few seconds, her mouth hanging open slightly.

"And I kind of asked her out." Now Thalia's jaw was on the grass.

Recovering from her spaced out moment she sat down next to me and asked, "Well what did she say?"

I retold the story to Thalia of how Annabeth said that she wasn't ready for a relationship yet and how I told her that I would wait for her until she was and then how we sat in the café doing homework all afternoon. Thalia listened intently to my whole story without saying anything.

Then I had a scary thought.

"Thalia, what if she doesn't like me? And that's why she said no? Maybe she was letting me down gently!" I was almost in a panic at this stage.

Of course Thalia knew what to say and do.

"Percy, she does like you. I see the way she acts around you. Its not hard to notice," she told me. The way she said it just automatically made me want to believe her. But I knew that Thalia would never lie to me about this kind of thing, so of course she would be telling the truth.

"Can you talk to her?" I asked.

"No."

"Please?" I asked with my best sad-puppy face. This usually worked on her. "For your favourite cousin in the whole wide world?"

She grinned, wrapping her arms around me in a tight hug.

"Only because you're my favourite. And this is the only time!" she said, pulling back to look me in the eye.

"I know. Thank you Thalia," I sing-songed.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just don't make me regret this."

We got up off the bench and started making our way back to my apartment.

"You wanna stay for dinner?" I asked.

"Sure. Race you back!" we took off running back towards my place.

Thalia often came over for dinner. Her mom had been an alcoholic and was killed in a car crash about seven years ago. Thalia's dad was a successful businessman who travelled often and didn't really have time for his daughter. My mom and Paul didn't mind and Thalia loved my mom's cooking, so it was fine with everyone. Mom felt sorry for Thalia and treated her like a daughter.

Thalia stayed late that night. When dinner was finished, we had out usual Friday movie night. It was Paul's turn to choose, so we ended up watching The Breakfast Club. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It was late when the movie finished, so Mom told Thalia to stay over.

The two of us stayed up late into the night talking about random things. Well, mostly Annabeth. We came up with a good plan to get her to spill. Thalia would talk to her and find out exactly why Annabeth had turned me down. Then I would at least feel like I knew where I stood with her. Since it was Saturday the next day, Thalia decided to invite Annabeth over to her place so they could hang out.

I fell asleep, eagerly anticipating the next day. All I wanted to know was how Annabeth felt about me for real. The only problem was that I felt slightly guilty about getting Thalia to interrogate her for me. As I fell asleep, I wondered if maybe this wasn't such a good idea…

**A.N.: **_I know its short, and probably not one of the best chapters, but I felt bad for not updating so I wanted to post something. I really feel very bad that I didn't update sooner. I promise I will try to make the next chapter better and longer, but I might only update next Saturday because I am on holiday until then._

_Until next time (:_


	12. Chapter 12

**Outlaw: Running From Love**

**Chapter 12**

**A.N.: **_Hi. I'm not really in the mood for writing a long author's note. The car still isn't fixed and we cant go home until it is and also a friend invited me out for pizza (it was going to be our group) and I cant go because I'm not at home. So, yeah. But it ended up being cancelled anyway._

_I am really trying to get the chapters longer! It's not that easy for me, but I am trying!_

_Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter._

**ANNABETH POV:**

That Saturday morning, Thalia called and invited me over to her house to hang out.

"I'll meet you outside your building, OK?" she asked.

"Yeah, that's fine. I'll see you in… an hour?" I said while looking at my clock, trying to work out how long it would take to get ready.

"Great! See you then." And she hung up.

After putting the phone down, I went into the bathroom to shower and wash my hair. When I had done that, I went to get dressed. I picked out my most comfortably skinny jeans, which were faded and ripped on the knees, a lilac and grey striped long sleeved T-Shirt and Percy's jacket that I still hadn't returned with my favourite pair of worn navy blue Converse.

I grabbed my phone and some money, stuffing them both in my pocket, and ran into the kitchen to grab some breakfast before I left. Cheryl was already in there cleaning up what she hadn't finished last night.

"Good morning sweetie," she greeted me with a smile.

"Good morning, Cheryl," I replied. "A friend invited me to hang out, so I'll be gone the whole day."

"OK, that's fine. Was it Percy?" she asked curiously.

I sighed. "No, his cousin. Thalia. I don't think he will want to talk to me after yesterday."

She smiled sympathetically at me and said, "Annabeth. I know he isn't mad at you. He didn't storm out did he?"

I had to admit that she was right. I nodded my head in agreement.

"So would you like something to eat before you go?" Cheryl asked.

"Just some toast," I shrugged.

After eating my breakfast I hurried to the bathroom to brush my teeth and then fetched my keys from my backpack lying next to my desk. I headed to the front door, stopping only to poke my head into my dad's study and say good morning and good-bye.

"Bye, Cheryl!" I called as I walked out the door.

I heard her call "Bye, Annabeth!" before I closed the door.

I walked quickly down the stairs, trying my best not to slip. I reached the ground floor within five minutes. I pushed my way through the glass door and walked out onto the sidewalk. I looked around for Thalia, scanning the people walking quickly by. Then my eyes settled on a mop of spiky pitch-black hair.

Thalia had been standing on the other side of the door with her headphones on, blaring what sounded like Florence and the Machine loudly enough that I could hear it over the loud noise of the busy street. I walked over to her and tapped her on the shoulder. She jumped and turned to see who had disturbed her. When she saw me her eyes lit up and she grinned. She pulled off her headphones and shoved them into the sling bag she was wearing over her shoulder.

"Hey, Anniebeth," she teased me. I rolled my eyes.

"Hi, Thals. How're you?"

She shrugged. "Not bad. You wanna get some hot chocolate?"

"Yeah, sure." I nodded in response.

She pulled her bag further onto her shoulder and started walking towards the same coffee shop Percy and I had been to the previous day.

We walked in to the café to the welcoming smell of fresh cakes, cookies and coffee. We queued for a few minutes before we reached the counter to place our orders. The lady behind the counter looked about fifty, with greying hazel brown hair, kind chocolate eyes and a warm smile.

"One takeaway white hot chocolate and a jumbo choc-chip cookie please," Thalia told the lady behind the counter. The lady put Thalia's order into the computer and then turned to me.

"What would you like, dear?"

"Just a regular hot chocolate please. Also takeaway," I replied.

She smiled, "Coming right up."

We payed for our drinks and waited to the side as the lady took more orders. She called us over and handed us each a takeaway cup and gave Thalia her cookie.

"Enjoy, " she told us.

"Thank you, we will," Thalia said as I nodded in agreement.

"Bye." We waved to her as we walked out of the shop.

I took the lid off my cup, gently blowing on my hot chocolate before taking a sip. To my surprise, it was a perfect temperature to drink. Not so hot that I would burn my mouth. I put the lid back on before continuing to enjoy the warm drink

Thalia had already eaten almost half of the jumbo cookie. I don't know how she did it, that thing was huge! I laughed and shook my head at her.

"Wha'?" she asked me, cookie crumbs falling out of her mouth as she spoke.

"We just left the café, and you're already halfway done with that," I laughed, motioning towards the half eaten cookie in my friend's hands.

She swallowed the huge amount she had in her mouth. "So what?" she asked.

I laughed some more. "Thalia that cookie is _huge_! I have no idea how you ate it so fast…"

She snorted in laughter. "I'm a fast eater."

I teased her and we laughed all the way to Thalia's house. When we arrived, I stood with my mouth open just staring at the huge… _mansion _in front of me.

"I hoped this wouldn't happen…" I heard Thals mutter.

I picked my jaw up off the floor and looked at her in amazement.

"This is your _house_?" I asked.

She sighed and nodded yes.

"My dad owns a few major companies. He's never around though. I try to be here as little as possible, because it's just me and the staff," she explained.

We walked up to the front door and Thalia pulled out her keys and unlocked the big wooden barrier. She pushed it open and led me inside. If the house looked big from the outside, it looked bigger on the inside!

There were huge marble staircases, Persian carpets, cream couches, ornaments and expensive looking vases on tables and framed artworks everywhere. I felt my jaw drop again.

Thalia groaned. "Come on." She grabbed my arm and started pulling me up the stairs towards her bedroom.

He bedroom was plain. Or it would be if she hadn't covered every piece of available wall space with photographs, drawings and posters of musicians and movie stars. I couldn't even see the colour of the walls.

There was a giant bookshelf containing a hi-fi system, piles of CDs, books and DVDs. The music collection consisted of mostly rock music, everything from the classics to new stuff like Paramore and Green Day. The same thing with DVDs. Classic romantic comedies and horrors, as well as some new stuff and concert movies. I also noticed that most of the books were vampire stories.

The bedroom wasn't huge, but the rooms leading off it made it seem bigger. There was the massive bookshelf, a queen sized bed, an en suite bathroom and a walk in closet as well as a balcony. It was a pretty cool room.

Thalia walked over to her bed and flopped down on top of the silver duvet, which had black stitched patterns on it. The curtains matched the bed set and the small rug on the floor. She rolled over onto her stomach and propped herself up on her elbows.

"I hate having a rich father," she told me seriously.

"I understand," I sympathised. Sure she could have anything that she wanted, but if her father was never home it probably felt like he was trying to make up for not being there with material items.

Thals sighed and rolled onto her back again. I walked over to the bed and lay down next to her. I needed to tell her what had happened with Percy the day before. I just blurted it out.

"Percy sort of indirectly asked me out yesterday."

She sat up next to me and looked at me with wide eyes.

"Seriously?" she exclaimed.

I nodded.

"Oh, my gosh! Annabeth that's great!" Then she saw my expressionless face. "You… you _did_ say yes. Right?"

I silently shook my head. I held back the tears, because I'd done enough crying the day before and I didn't want to look weak in front of Thalia.

"What?" she asked. "Why?"

I rolled over so that my back was to her.

"I was scared," I whispered.

She was silent for a while. Then, "Scared of what?"

I took a deep breath before telling her.

"He told me about his dating history," I began. "I don't know if he really means it or… or if he's just going to dump me after a week."

Thalia didn't say anything for a few seconds. "What did he say exactly?"

I sighed before rolling over to face her. I contemplated telling Thalia exactly what Percy had said, but I wasn't sure if I was being stupid about this. Maybe he really did care? Maybe he really had been serious and he wasn't going to hurt me. I made my decision.

"He said he was serious about liking me. And I told him that I wasn't ready. Really I was just scared for the same reasons that I just told you. But then he said that he would wait for me until I was ready."

Thalia rolled her eyes. Then she looked me in the eye and began to lecture me.

"Annabeth, I've known Percy my whole life. He would never hurt you on purpose, I know that for a fact. He told me that he never felt bad for what he's done before, but since he met you he has."

I thought about that. Maybe Thalia was right?

"Annabeth, he talked to me yesterday. He really does like you. A lot. I would even guess that he was in love with you."

I froze. I couldn't move. I lay there staring at Thals, my mouth open again and my eyes wide.

Thalia laughed at my expression. "Hello? Earth to Annabeth?"

I shook myself out of my daze. I smiled and looked at my friend.

"He really said that?"

"Well," she mused, "he didn't actually say that. But he was worried that you turned him down because you weren't interested."

I was shocked to hear that. We had become great friends over the short amount of time that we had known each other. We held hands when it was cold, we mildly flirted with each other and we walked to school and back home together every day. How could he think I didn't like him, that I wasn't interested? I was more open with him than I was with anybody else!

"He does?" I asked. Then it hit me. "He asked you to talk to me, didn't he?" I had to admit, she had done a good job of trying not to let me know.

"He did," she sighed. "But please don't be mad!"

I laughed. Now I knew how he really felt and he would know how I felt, if Thalia told him. I wasn't angry, I was actually pleased. This was easier than talking to Percy myself and now we would both know where we stood.

I explained this to Thalia, and she smiled when she realised that I wasn't going to skin her alive.

"Phew!" she joked. "I shall live another day!"

I laughed. "By the way, have you been trying to play match maker?"

Her face turned pink and she muttered, "Maybe…"

We spent the rest of the day in better spirits, laughing and teasing each other, listening to music and watching DVDs while Thalia got the house staff to cook for us. Although it seemed amazing to have people catering to our every need, it also seemed lonely to live life as the daughter of a multi billionaire.

Thalia said that she would spend the night at Percy's apartment, so the two of us walked back to my building around five o'clock. We took the stairs, both of us used to this from doing this with Percy.

I said goodbye when we reached my floor, and Thalia went on up to Percy's. I wondered how much of our conversation she would tell him?

**A.N.: **_that was a looong chapter. I hope you enjoyed it. And thank you to everybody who reviewed, I'm very grateful for the feedback. _

_Please review and check out my other stories and _**please **_vote on my poll! I really want to do all three stories, but I don't want to be busy with more than one long story at once so really I would appreciate it if you voted._

_I will try to update near the end of the week. Maybe on Wednesday or Thursday. I'm getting my wisdom teeth out as well as a molar on Wednesday so I will try to do some writing then if I don't feel too terrible._

_Thanks for reading! (:_

_xoxo_


	13. Chapter 13

**Outlaw: Running From Love**

**Chapter 13**

**A.N.: **_Hello my wonderful readers! I'm sorry I didn't update sooner, I just felt so terrible that I only felt like sleeping and watching TV. Pathetic, I know. But I'm back again! Although I do still look like a chipmunk… _

_Anyway, thank you for all the reviews! Another twenty-two reviews and we will have reached one hundred! Cool huh?_

_I forgot about the disclaimer in the last chapter, but you all know I'm not Rick. I'll do one now anyway._

**Disclaimer: **_I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Only this story plot and the laptop I am typing on._

**PERCY POV:**

I had been thinking about Annabeth all day. Mostly about how beautiful she was, but also about whether or not she liked me. I was still stressing over what had happened the previous day. Maybe I shouldn't have said anything? Maybe I should have waited to tell her how I felt? And maybe it would have been better if I had never said anything and left us to be just friends?

None of those ideas had appealed to me before I told her, and none of them sounded any better now. I was just wondering if Thalia had spoken to her yet, when my bedroom door burst open. And speak of the devil.

"Thalia," I said, sitting up from my bed to look angrily at my cousin. "I'm pretty sure that we've had this conversation before. Why don't you knock? I could have been getting dressed!"

She rolled her eyes and leaned against the doorframe. "Perce, seriously, you should know by now that I will never knock on your door." She paused. "Ever."

I sighed. I really didn't feel like talking to her while she was wearing her bad attitude. At that moment, all thought of the conversation she was meant to have had with Annabeth went completely out of my head. I was too irritated with Thalia to really care that she may have gotten something out of Annabeth.

"What do you want?" I asked reluctantly.

She grinned her slightly evil looking grin, closed the door and walked over to my desk chair. She sat down and started spinning in slow circles.

"Well," she began, "I did come here to spend the night again and talk about Annabeth…" Now she had my attention. "But if you don't want me here then I might as well go back home to that big, empty, _lonely _house," she teased with that same grin on her lips and a depressing tone of voice.

I sighed again and rolled my eyes now eager to hear what she had to say. "What did Annabeth say?"

Thalia perked up at this. "Oh? You are interested? I thought you were mad at me?" she asked innocently.

"The guilty thing doesn't work for you. And I'm sorry for sounding angry." I hated giving in like this, but it was the only way that I would ever find out what Annabeth had said.

Thalia stopped spinning on the desk chair so she could face me. She stared at me for a while.

"She figured it out you know." I had been about to reach over and grab my cell phone, but I froze when she said that.

"Figured what out?" _Please don't know that I asked Thalia to ask you, _I silently prayed.

"What do you think, Einstein? She figured out that you asked me to talk to her." I buried my face in my hands. Now Annabeth was going to hate me and would never speak to me again! "She isn't angry though," Thalia finished.

My head shot up. "What? She's not?"

Thalia shook her head. "She told me everything before she figured it out. And she said that this way, she knows how you feel and you will know how she feels and because you didn't tell each other face to face, it wasn't awkward at all."

I jumped up and hugged my cousin. "Thank you, Thals! Thank you, thank you, _thank you_!"

She pulled away out of the rib-crushing hug. "I didn't tell you what she said yet."

_Crap._ I flopped back down onto my bed and lay on my back with an arm over my face. "She said 'no', didn't she Thals? And now she never wants to see me again!" I mumbled from under my left arm.

She laughed. "Actually…" she began, teasing me again by trying to tell me as slowly as possible.

She once again had my attention. "_What did she say, Thalia_!"

"Gosh, you don't have to be mad at me. Again."

I rolled my eyes.

Thalia sighed. "Fine," she began. "Annabeth said that she really does like you, but she was scared."

Now I was really confused and really happy. Happy because she did like me, and confused because she told me that she wasn't _ready_ for a serious relationship. But now she was _scared_? I would never intentionally hurt her, she meant too much to me. She couldn't seriously have thought that I would play her?

"What is she scared of? I would never hurt her, you know that. Right, Thals?" I asked.

"She is scared that you would leave her after a week, and that that would be easy for you considering your past. And she said that she really cares about you, so if that happened…" she trailed off.

I was speechless. After everything that I told her, about waiting and all that she still thought that I might be playing her? Although it made me sad to hear that she might have not believed what I had told her about how I felt, I could see where Annabeth was coming from. She'd had a good reason to turn me down.

"But I told her I was serious!" I insisted.

There was a pause, and then Thalia whispered, "I told her that you seemed in love with her."

_Crap. Again_! I groaned. "Thalia _why_ did you _say_ that?"

"Because it's the truth!" she snapped. "You admitted it yourself that you act with her like you did with the red head!"

She had me there. And now I was backing down again instead of arguing. But that would get us nowhere anyway and I wanted to know the rest.

"You're right. I'm sorry," I admitted.

There was a silence that fell over us while I thought about what Thalia had told me. Yes, Annabeth had a right to feel scared considering my past. But I had to show her that I genuinely cared for and about her. But how was I going to do that though? I honestly had no idea. But somehow I was going to have to show Annabeth the feelings that I had for her.

"When I said that you seemed in love," Thalia said braking the silence, "she didn't really have a reply. She went into a sort of daze. But I'm pretty sure that she was happy to hear that."

That made my day. It was a relief that maybe Annabeth felt the same way for me as I did her! But I wasn't positive. I didn't know for sure, I only had Thalia's assumptions to go on. But that was better than nothing. Although, Thalia didn't always read people properly. But this time I was willing to believe her until I could find out more. Anyway, asking her definitely got me better results than compared to if I had asked Nico.

"So what do I do?" I asked my cousin. "Do I ask her out again? Or do I wait until she comes to me and tells me that she's ready?"

"Ask her," said Thalia. "But don't just ask her out. Do it with discretion. Ask if she is ready yet, and if not, tell her to tell you when she is. Make an understanding between you two so that you both know where you stand."

It wasn't a bad idea, but I wasn't sure if I would be able to wait until she was ready. It might be ages! I would have to take things into my own hands… I wouldn't do anything stupid, or something I would regret. I was just going to show Annabeth that she didn't need to be scared and that I wouldn't hurt her. But how to do that was the problem…

I didn't want to scare her off completely, or give her the wrong idea. I had to be caring and gentle. That might be hard, but if I can get Annabeth to be my girlfriend… Well then it would all be worth it.

**A.N.: **_I know its kind of short and not one of my best chapters, but this was really just so that I could update and you could see Percy talking to Thalia. The next chapter will be longer and school starts again on Monday so I'm not sure when the next update will be, but I will try to keep you posted on Twitter. ( KaylsBookworm and that's an L not a capital i)._

_Again, please vote on my poll! Its very important that you do, or I won't post another long story for a while after this one finishes because I wont know which one to write. So please vote! The summaries are in my bio._

_Thanks for reading (and reviewing if you decide to). _

_xoxo_


	14. Chapter 14

**Outlaw: Running From Love**

**Chapter 14**

**A.N.: **_Hello! This week has been so hectic, I've had almost no time to write at all! But anyway, here I am! I really wanted to update this yesterday, but I didn't get to finish in time. I had homework to do._

_Can you guys (and girls) believe that this story has almost one hundred reviews? :D_

_And really, I apologise for making you wait so long for an update, I've been really busy! And thank you to those who reviewed, it means a lot (:_

**Disclaimer: **_I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Simple as that._

**PERCY POV:**

I had a plan. Not necessarily a good one, but I figured that it could work. It was a simple plan, but then like Thalia has pointed out many times, I'm not very good at planning. Despite that well known fact, I refused to let her help me at all.

My plan was to talk to Annabeth. Just talk to her. All I wanted to do was hear from her the reasons she was scared and to reassure her. I wanted her to hear from _me_ that I cared about her. And although that sounds really sappy, that was my plan.

Monday came and went. So did Tuesday and Wednesday. We walked to school together like normal, and then in the afternoon we walked home. Neither of us brought up what had happened on Friday or that I had gotten Thalia to speak to Annabeth. Thursday rolled by too. Then on Friday, a week after I had first asked Annabeth out, I decided that that it was time to put my plan into action.

"Annabeth?"

"Yeah?" she replied. She turned her head to face me, and the look in her beautiful grey eyes was pretty intimidating! It felt like she was looking into my soul, which isn't a comfortable feeling.

"Can we take a detour?" I asked. "I want to show you something. And I want to talk to you…" I explained when she looked confused.

She nodded in response and pulled the jacket I had loaned her closer around her body. I didn't mind that she hadn't given it back yet. I was planning on letting her keep it anyway. We carried on walking through the Manhattan streets until we reached the park near to our apartment building. I lead her over to the bench where I had talked to Thalia. I read the plaque on the back for the hundredth time: _In loving memory of Margaret Smith, 1934 – 2008, from Jacob who sat and watched the world with her._

I motioned for Annabeth to sit down. When she had, I sat down next to her. I took a deep breath before beginning.

"Why are you scared of getting closer to me?"

She looked down, seeming embarrassed. She sighed and then looked up at me, looking me in the eye.

"Your past. You could hurt me so easily. You could just be playing me, and…" she trailed off.

Hearing that from Thalia had been disconcerting. Hearing it straight from Annabeth was way worse! I hadn't really given that much though after hearing it from my cousin, but hearing the girl I'd fallen for say it herself is almost shocking. She looked down again, no longer meeting my gaze.

"Annabeth," I began, feeling close to tears over the fact that she was worried that I would hurt her. I luckily managed to stop the tears from flowing. Right now would be a bad time to look like a sissy. "I would never hurt you. Ever! Can't you see that I would never do that?"

She looked up to meet my gaze again. I could see the fear in her eyes that she tried not to let show. We looked into each other's eyes for a few minutes, a comfortable silence falling over us. The silence was comfortable despite the tension that surrounded us. It was quite a weird feeling, but it was kind of nice.

"You're serious about that, aren't you?" she whispered to me. I chuckled at her question. She was quoting me.

"Yes," I whispered back.

She licked her lips and took a deep breath. "I'm serious too."

I blinked, confused, without taking my gaze off her. Was she serious about her no? "About what?"

"My feelings towards you." She sighed. "I want to try. And I believe you."

My heart was racing. It felt like it would jump out of my chest, and I was silently hoping that Annabeth couldn't hear it. _Did she really say that? She was going to give me a chance? _

I felt my face break out into a grin. "You mean that?"

She nodded. "I'm serious about that."

I hadn't noticed that we were leaning in closer to each other until we were just centimetres apart. I could feel her warm breath on my lips.

"May I kiss you?" I asked.

"Yes," Annabeth breathed.

I leaned in a little further, and captured her lips in mine. You know how you hear people say that they felt fireworks? I had never believed that could be true until now. I had always thought that it was some movie cliché or something. But now I knew that it was true.

Our lips moved in perfect sync. The kiss was sweet, and just… perfect. Annabeth's hands moved to the back of my neck and mine went to her waist. We sat there on the bench together, completely caught up in our own world. When we eventually broke apart, we were both breathing heavily.

I knew that had been Annabeth's first kiss, and I was nervous that it hadn't been how she had expected it to be. She must have seen the worry in my eyes.

"What's wrong?" she asked with a slight note of panic of panic in her voice.

"Nothing," I reassured her. "Just… did you l-like it?"

She sighed in relief, smiled and nodded. "Yes," she whispered.

I smiled and leaned in to kiss her softly again. I had kissed lots of girls, but none of them were Annabeth. And it was so much nicer to kiss her. And I could honestly tell her that it was the best kiss of my life.

I pulled away and looked into her eyes and told her that.

"That was the best kiss I've ever had," I said.

"My first and best," she chuckled.

"So does this mean that you're my girlfriend?" I asked.

"Of course I does, you Seaweed Brain!" she said, exasperation clear in her voice.

I laughed. "'Seaweed Brain'? Where does that come from?"

"Well you like the sea and swimming and you're not always too bright, so, Seaweed Brain," she explained.

"'_Not too bright_'?" I exclaimed. "You've hurt my feelings, Wise Girl."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "'Wise Girl'?"

"Yes. You're so smart, I'm sure you can figure it out," I said, smiling mischievously.

Annabeth smacked me around the back of my head.

"Ow!" I said while laughing. She apologised through her laughter, then stood up from the bench and stretched her hand out for me to take. I took my new girlfriends outstretched hand and stood up. I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her close into a hug. She rested her head against my shoulder and placed her arms around my neck. We stood there for a few minutes before Annabeth pulled back.

"I need to get home," she said apologetically.

I nodded, and we started looking back to our building.

We talked about school and family, the usual things, on the way home. I held her hand, which wasn't really a new thing. The difference this time was that our fingers were intertwined the whole time.

I didn't want to leave her when we got to her door. I kissed her softly and quickly before saying goodbye and walking up the stairs to my apartment. I grinned stupidly the whole way up. I opened the door and walked into the kitchen to find Mom.

"Hey, Mom," I greeted her. I could feel myself still smiling like an idiot.

"Hi, Percy. How was your day?" she replied.

"Amazing. Wonderful. Brilliant. Fantastic. Incredible-"

"Hold on!" Mom interrupted. "What happened that made it so great?"

I smiled even wider and sighed a sappy, lovesick sigh.

"I kissed Annabeth, and she is now my girlfriend," I announced proudly.

Mom squealed in excitement. It was so loud I think I felt my ears pop. She ran over to me and pulled me into a death-grip hug.

"Mom. Can't. Breathe!" I said into her shoulder.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, pulling away quickly. "Sorry, honey. But I'm so happy for you!"

"Thanks," I grinned. "I'm going to go start my homework." I turned to head down the hall to my room.

"But dinner's ready. You have the whole weekend to do homework!" I never thought that I would ever hear my mom say that…

So I stayed in the kitchen and helped Mom set the table. Then Paul arrived and we sat down to eat. Of course Mom told him about Annabeth, and I turned red. Over all, dinner wasn't that bad. It could have been worse I guess.

After helping with the dishes, I managed to escape to my room to start on my homework. After sitting on the same question for more than five minutes, I decided that the only way that I would be able to get this done was if I had Annabeth's help.

I was contemplating calling her, but we would probably talk for hours and do no homework. Texting would be complicated, because explaining things is more difficult. Then I had a brain wave.

I pushed my books and pencil bag back into my backpack, zipped it up and walked over to my window. I opened it, and started down the fire escape. The only way this could have gone wrong, was if I fell or my mom realised that I wasn't in my room anymore. But even if I got in trouble for sneaking out, this would be worth it.

**A.N.: **_This is where it gets interesting! I think… Ha ha! Anyway, thank you for reading and review this, maybe? :D_

_By the way, I am so angry that Taylor Lautner (if that show you spell it) beat Logan Lerman in the Teen Choice Awards! In my humble opinion, I think people voted for Taylor because they know him from Twilight. I honestly think Logan deserved that award more. Enough rambling!_

_I still have my poll up, so please vote? I won't be starting a new story unless I get more than 25 votes on it. I have 8 so far. So please vote?_

And I hope to update over the weekend. And I'm starting another story made up of one-shots about the life of Percabeth. It will probably be quite fluffy, and it will also be posted in the next week or so.

_Thank you for supporting me and my writing (:_

_xoxo_


	15. Chapter 15

**Outlaw: Running From Love**

**Chapter 15**

**A.N.: **_We got over 100 reviews! Thank you so, so much to everybody who reviewed the last chapter and also to everybody who reviewed any chapter._

_Chapter 14 reviewers:_

**Pregnantnun227: **_I'm glad you could call it a good day!_

WisestOwl

**Phantomcharm: **_thank you! I'm pleased that you enjoyed it (:_

**Louisa4533: **_your review made me laugh! Remember how Sally was, telling Percy he had a date with Annabeth? Ha ha! My mom would be fine with me having a boyfriend, it's my dad I would be worried about telling!_

Jacksonluver101

**Guest: **_you can also vote in a review if you like. The summaries are in my bio. Votes in reviews will count (: and I agree, the mobile site needs to be able to view and vote on polls!_

**percyjacksonharrypotterrules: **_thank you for agreeing with me about Logan and for reading!_

**LoGaNs WiFe: **_thank you for also agreeing! Like the name ;) _

**fatbublebunny132: **_I know! I've subscribed to so many stories and like five of them have been updated in the last two weeks! Is everybody at summer camp or something? And thank you for the Cookie/Veggie Monster details. Made me laugh!_

**killintimez: **_thank you for reviewing half the chapters, and I'm sorry if I offended you. I said that because once a guy friend of mine didn't even realise that I was wearing a skirt and not pants when he tried to tackle me. The story is AU, they aren't demigods in this one. And you aren't an idiot. Unfortunately I can't say if you're a good-looking idiot or not! Don't take offence to that too please! Ha ha! Thank you for the suggestion of Percy singing "Sexy and I Know It", but maybe in another story? And this is your shout out by the way! :D and here is the more writing. Thanks you for the "fangirling" and "weird dancing". Your reviews made me laugh! And I was listening (: _

**Percabeth lover 28: **_I always smile when I read fluff! Thank you for the review and I'm glad you thought it was really cute! That's what I was going for._

**bluewaterwings**

**FunnyPuffins1600: **_thank you!_

**GoddessArtemis1999: **_sorry! Thank you for reading and reviewing._

Pokemonchen

**crazylove27: **_thank you for being one of my most amazing reviewers! And readers! Are there any of my stories that you haven't read? Ha ha (: I love your reviews_

**Arrow of Artemis: **_thanks for reading, reviewing and agreeing with me (:_

**onceuponaprincess16**

_That is a long list! Thanks guys! A whole page on a Word Document used to thank people for reviewing…_

**Disclaimer: **_I don't own anything. Simple as that. Well I do own my laptop, but you get the point._

**ANNABETH POV:**

When I arrived home, Cheryl was waiting for me with her arms crossed. She smirked at me.

"Why are you so late?" she asked.

I contemplated telling her a lie and saying that I had been with Thalia, but she would figure it out anyway. So I told her the truth.

"I went to the park with Percy," I said casually. I turned to hang up my coat so that my inquisitive stepmother wouldn't see my smile or my slightly pinker than usual cheeks at the mention of my boyfriend. _Boyfriend, _I thought. _That sounds so weird!_

She must have noticed though.

"What did you guys do?" she asked, trying to sound uninterested.

I could feel myself blush some more, which wasn't very like me. Cheryl drew her own conclusion from my behaviour. She gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. She squealed and rushed over to hug me. While she crushed me in her arms, she yelled (in my ear), "You kissed him! You did, didn't you?"

So she guessed right…

"Yes! I did, OK? But, Cheryl…" I gasped. "You're crushing me!"

"Oh!" she exclaimed, pulling away quickly and holding me at arms length. She smiled at me with that 'proud mom look'.

"Are you happy?" she asked me sincerely.

I thought about that for a few seconds before answering. Of course I was happy, but I just didn't know exactly how to tell Cheryl that. But I couldn't say nothing, then she would think that I wasn't happy. So I smiled widely before replying.

"Yes," I replied, nodding my head.

She pulled me back for another hug.

"I'm happy for you," she whispered in my ear. I gently pulled away and looked at my stepmother questioningly.

"What will Dad say? Have you said anything to him?" I was a little concerned about how my dad would react to this, because I had only ever talked about Percy in depth with Cheryl. My dad knew who Percy was, but they had never met and never seen each other, so I had good reason to be nervous.

"I told him a little about Percy. Nothing serious or that you wouldn't want him to hear!" she hurriedly replied. "He knows that Percy lives in this building and goes to your school, but that's about it."

I was relieved that my dad didn't know anything about what I had told Cheryl about mine and Percy's conversation at the coffee shop. I could tell him myself, when and how I wanted to. I didn't want to face him alone though, so I asked Cheryl to help me.

We decided that after dinner when the twins went to bath and the three of us were left in the TV room, I would tell him and Cheryl would be there for 'support'. My dad could be a little difficult to talk to sometimes. He could be very judgemental, and I didn't want to give him the wrong impression of my boyfriend and be forbidden to see him again. So Cheryl and I decided that we wouldn't say anything about Percy's past girlfriends.

I went to my room to change into some more comfortable clothes and jot down some building ideas I had. I changed into my pair of purple sweat pants, a blue racer-back vest and my grey owl hoodie. I slipped my feet into my slippers, sat down at my desk and began to draw. I was so absorbed in my designing, I didn't hear when I was called for dinner, and so Cheryl sent Matthew to fetch me.

Matthew had always been interested in my drawings. He liked looking at them and then trying to build the designs out of Lego or building blocks. Bobby had never been interested though, and enjoyed breaking down the Lego constructions.

When Matthew saw that I was busy, he hopped up onto my lap to see my newest design.

"Its pretty," he told me while his eyes wondered over the paper.

"Thanks, Matt," I smiled. "We can try to build it later, its time for dinner and your mom is probably getting impatient."

Luckily for us, Cheryl wasn't angry with us for taking so long to get to the kitchen. I think she liked that Matthew and I could enjoy doing something together.

After dinner, I went to wash the dishes while Cheryl ran a bath for the boys and Dad went to the TV room to watch some documentary on . I was hoping that it would finish in time for me to be able to talk to him.

Cheryl came into the kitchen to help me finish up the dishes. I went over the plan with her one more time, putting emphasis on never bringing up Percy's past relationships.

"I know, Annabeth," Cheryl sighed.

"Sorry. I'm just nervous," I admitted.

"It's going to be fine," she reassured me.

"I know." I sighed. "I'm going to go talk to him now." I finished drying the last plate, out it on the rack and dried my hands on a towel.

"I'll be there in a minute," Cheryl promised.

I walked out of the kitchen and into the TV room to talk to my dad. I sat down next to him on the sofa, pulled my feet up and crossed my legs. _How the hell am I going to do this?_ I thought. Then Cheryl walked into the room and sat down on the other side of Dad. I saw her slightly nod out of the corner of my eye.

I took a deep breath and decided that it was now or never.

"Dad, you remember Percy Jackson?" He just looked confused. "I've mentioned him before?" I tried, but it came out sounding like a question. I sighed. "He lives upstairs and I walk with him to school in the morning."

"Oh, yes!" he exclaimed. "I know who you mean."

"Yes, well," I paused to swallow. "He uh, well, he's sorta my boyfriend…"

I could feel that my face was red and my heart was beating madly. My father sat in silence just staring at me. Finally he said something.

"You've only known him for two weeks!" he said disbelievingly.

"I know that, Dad, but…"

Luckily Cheryl decided to step in at that moment.

"Frederick," she warned.

"What? It's a valid point!" he argued.

"Yes, but darling," Cheryl began before lowering her voice slightly. "Let her make her own decisions. Annabeth is old enough to make her own choices."

My dad sighed, and then turned his head back towards me.

"OK. Fine. I won't object. But I want to meet this kid. And don't let him… you know… force you to – uh, you get the idea."

I'm positive that my face went even redder. I knew exactly what my father was implying. And I didn't need to hear that!

"No! Dad you don't have to worry! Really, just… " I could see my stepmother shaking her head at my dad's words of 'advice'.

"And I'll bring him here tomorrow to meet you guys," I promised.

Before I could be asked anymore awkward questions, I excused myself to go and continue some designing. I had been sitting at my desk for about ten minutes when I heard a tapping noise. I looked around my room, but I couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. I wondered if maybe somebody was knocking on my window…

I'll admit, I was scared. The curtains were closed so I couldn't see outside. I picked up the baseball bat, which was leaning against the wall next to my cupboard. I only had it for playing ball with my brothers on the weekends.

I gripped the bat tightly in my right hand. I carefully walked over to my window, my heart beating madly. I reached out and yanked the curtain open with the bat raised high above my head. But who I saw there gave me a huge surprise.

The bat fell to my side as I registered the face of the person hanging to the fire escape outside my window. My heartbeat began to return to normal.

I threw the bat down onto the floor and pulled the window open.

"Percy! What are you doing here?" I exclaimed as my boyfriend climbed in through the window and pulled me into a hug.

"I wanted to see you," he said. He still had his arms around me. it felt nice.

"And I needed some help with my homework," he said, chuckling simultaneously.

"Seaweed Brain," I mumbled into his chest.

"Is that a yes?" I asked me.

"Sure," I laughed.

I led Percy over to my desk and fetched some paper and a pen. We sat on the floor, leaning against the side of my bed. We spent almost an hour trying to get Percy's math homework. But eventually we got through it. It was almost half past ten when we finished.

Percy had been prolonging the process by trying to kiss me every time he got an answer correct saying that he deserved a 'reward'. I just laughed and kissed him on the cheek.

"Come on, Annabeth! We've finished the homework now," he complained. Then he leaned closer and whispered, "Please, just let me kiss you again."

I could feel my heart begin to race again.

I leaned a little closer and said, "OK."

We leaned in the rest of the way and our lips met once again. As amazing as my first kiss had been, this was almost better. His lips were soft and (as weird as it sounds) had a nice taste. Sort of like seawater and spearmint. An odd combination, but it was nice.

We sat together in my room, kissing (well actually more making out) for quite a while. Then there was a knock on my door.

"Annabeth? Can we come in?" my dad called.

Percy and I pulled apart quickly.

"Uh… Just a second!" I called out. "I'm… getting changed!"

Percy looked at me with a slightly panicked expression.

"They can't know that I'm here!" he whisper-yelled.

"I know!" I replied. "Hide under the bed. And don't look, I'll have to change or they'll suspect something!"

"OK. I promise I won't look," he assured me.

I smiled gratefully, kissed him quickly and pushed him down so he could crawl under the bed.

I ran to my cupboard and pulled out my blue and grey striped PJ pants and matching top. I pulled them on quickly, then ran to the door to let my parents in.

I opened the door to find my dad and Cheryl standing waiting for me.

"We just came to say goodnight," my dad said as he reached out to hug me. I hugged him back and he kissed the top of my head. Then I hugged Cheryl.

"Good night," said Cheryl.

"Sleep well, Annie," said Dad.

"Night, guys," I said before closing the door. I turned around and whispered, "Percy, you can come out now."

He crawled out from under the bed. He picked up his backpack and swung it over his shoulder.

"I'd better get going. My mom will probably notice that I'm gone soon."

I nodded.

"Thanks for the help," he said with a smile.

"Anytime, Seaweed Brain," I told him with a grin.

He walked over to me and pulled my body into his arms. He kissed me once more before walking open to the window. Percy opened the window and climbed out onto the fire escape. I leaned out of the window to kiss him one last time.

"Good night, Wise Girl," he whispered.

"Good night, Seaweed Brain."

Percy began to climb up the fire escape to his apartment, which was one up and to the left. I closed the window after I had seen that he was safely to his own window.

I turned off the main light, leaving the one next to my bed still one. I quickly went to the bathroom to brush my teeth and use the loo.

When I got back to my room, I quickly climbed into bed. It had been a long day, it was late and I was tired. I checked my phone for messages before turning off the light, pulling the covers closer around my body, rolling over and going to sleep.

**A.N.: **_this feels like one of the longest chapters! I hope you guys all enjoyed it. Again, please, please vote on my poll! If you can't vote for whatever reason, read the summaries and vote in a review or a PM. _

_And also thank you again to everybody who has voted! It really makes my day every time I get an email on my BlackBerry saying I got a review._

_And check out _**A Life In OneShots**_. It's my new story and I'm hoping to update tomorrow._

_Thank you for reading! _

_Peace out y'all!_

_(I don't usually say stuff like that, but anyway)_


	16. Chapter 16

**Outlaw: Running From Love**

**Chapter 16**

**A.N.: **_HI guys and gals. I meant to update A Life In on Monday, but school and home life have both been so hectic, I haven't had any time. I just want to warn you, that this is the time in the term where we get all our tasks and projects, so if I don't update every week like usual, it means that I have then been doing homework all weekend._

_I also just have to get this out: I think I'm falling into a depression. I always seem to have the need to cry at night. I cannot be around my brother without feeling the need to punch something. That's not unusual though. But I hate being like this. And I'm scared to talk to my mum about this. And I tell her everything. So this might become bad. Today wasn't bad, but yesterday… really not good. Don't worry, I wont start cutting or attempting suicide, I don't think that solves anything. I hate medication, so that is no option. But I'm still worried. If you can give me any advice or have anything to say on this matter, please PM me. I would be very grateful. _

_On with the story:_

**PERCY POV:**

Truth be told: I had almost had a heart attack when Annabeth's parents knocked on the door. My first thought was that they would open the door straight away and not wait for Annabeth to tell them to come in. Luckily they did wait, which gave me time to hide and Annabeth time to make her cover story convincing.

Most people would think that the hardest part was keeping my eyes closed like I had promised so that I wouldn't see Annabeth change. That's not true for me though. It was trying to breathe softly. I had promised her that I wouldn't look, and (this might sound strange) but I didn't have any urge to look at her. I guess that comes from having respect for her, as well as how Mom raised me.

I was always told to treat any girl how I would expect my mom to be treated. I had always done that too, until the Rachel incident. But I had promised myself that I was going back to treating people, girls in particular, properly.

That night when I arrived home, I found my mom sitting at my desk. She was sitting in the spinning office chair and swaying it from side to side. I knew that it was too late for me to hide or climb back out the window, because where she was sitting faced the window head-on.

I gulped.

"Hi, Mommy," I said in a slightly squeaky voice.

"Did you visit Annabeth?" she looked up at me and asked. To my surprise, she was smiling.

"Uh… Maybe?" I said, thought it sounded like a question. She laughed, probably at how scared I sounded.

"You didn't have to sneak out you know," she told me. "I wouldn't have had a problem with letting you go out."

"I know, but I had to sneak in her window," I explained while Mom raised an eyebrow. "Her parents didn't know I was going over and I don't know if she told them yet."

Mom nodded slowly in understanding. "I see."

I nodded in return.

"I'm gonna get ready for bed," I said.

"OK, sweetie." She got up to come over and hug me. She had to stand on her toes to kiss my forehead. I laughed and she smacked my shoulder softly.

"You're growing up so fast…" she trailed off.

I lovingly rolled my eyes.

"I know," I replied. "You tell me almost every day."

Mom chuckled and turned to leave.

"Remember to say good night to Paul, OK?" She called from the door. "He's still watching the game."

I nodded. "Good night, Mom," I said, smiling.

After she left, I changed into my pyjama pants and a sweatshirt. Then I headed downstairs to watch TV with Paul. For an English teacher (_my _English teacher) he's a pretty cool guy. I usually watch or go to games with him and he often drives me to away swimming galas. At first, it was strange having him around, but when I got used to it I realised that we got on really well.

I first went into the kitchen to get a glass of water. Then I walked into the living room and sat down on the sofa next to my step-dad. He looked away from the TV and towards me when I sat down.

"Hi, Perce. I heard you went to Annabeth's?" he said as he looked back towards the TV. I could feel my face get a little hot. I'm not sure why though.

"Yeah," I replied, rubbing the back of my neck. "Mom told you, huh?"

Paul looked back at me and nodded. "I was the one who guessed that that was where you might be."

I stayed silent and just watched the rest of the game. It finished late because of time differences. It was almost half past twelve when I got into bed, and as soon as my head hit the pillow I was dreaming about Annabeth's beautiful eyes.

Xxxx

The next morning I woke up to a text from Annabeth.

Hey Seaweed Brain :D my dad + step-mom want to meet u… come over at about 11? Xoxo (:

I smiled as I began typing a reply.

Morning Wise Girl (; sure, I'll b there. Should I b worried? lol xox

I pressed send. Then I noticed that I could smell pancakes…

I ran out of my room and into the kitchen. I almost knocked Paul over as he walked out with his coffee. I quickly apologised, and he just laughed and said that it was OK.

Once in the kitchen, I saw Mom standing at the stove flipping blue pancakes in a pan.

"I guess you're hungry?" she said, laughing.

I laughed too.

"Well, you have made pancakes. I _can't_ not be hungry!"

I poured myself a glass of orange juice and sat down at the table. Mom put a plate of pancakes down in front of me on the table with the bottle of syrup. She sat down next to me with her plate of breakfast and also began eating.

We sat in silence for a while before I blurted out, "Annabeth's parents want to meet me."

Before, I hadn't been nervous at all. Now… I felt like I had received a death sentence. Well not that bad, but you get the idea.

"You'll be fine," Mom told me. She didn't even look up from her breakfast, she was that sure.

"But what if they don't like me? What if they don't approve of me?" I asked. She could obviously hear the worry in my voice, because she looked up to speak to me this time. She also reached her hand out and took mine.

"Percy, they have no reason to disapprove of you or to not like you. Don't worry about it. Everything will be fine, you'll see."

I nodded and took a deep breath. "OK."

"What time are they expecting you?" she asked as she began eating again.

"At eleven," I replied.

The rest of the meal was silent. Paul had left to take some students to a spelling bee. The only reason he was going was because of his position as English teacher. It was sort of in his job description to be at all spelling bees.

The rest of the morning went by too quickly. I showered and got dressed into a pair of dark jeans that weren't skinny, but also not too baggy, my worn black sneakers, a green T-shirt and a green hoodie that both brought out my eyes (according to Mom anyway).

I grabbed my wallet and my cell phone, shoving them each in a pocket. I went to Mom's study to say goodbye. It was quarter to eleven now and I didn't want to be late and leave a bad first impression.

After telling my mom that I would be back later, I went to collect my keys from the table next to the door. I left the apartment, the door clicking shut and locking behind me. I started walking down the stairs. With every step I took, my heart beat louder and faster. Much too soon, I found myself outside the Chase's front door.

I checked the time on my phone. It read ten fifty eight. I decided that standing there and waiting for it to be exactly eleven o'clock was a bit weird, so I rang the doorbell and waited. I didn't have to wait long. And luckily it was Annabeth who opened the door.

"Hey," she smiled at me, and suddenly I forgot why I was nervous.

"Hi," I said. I leaned forward and kissed her cheek. She wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me in for a hug. I was about to bury my face in her blonde curls, but I noticed a woman watching us from the doorway. The anxious feeling filled my stomach again, and I gently pulled away.

Annabeth looked at me with questioning eyes. Then she turned her head and saw her stepmother standing there. She blushed and pulled her arms from around my neck.

"Um, Percy, this is Cheryl. My step-mom." She motioned to the woman who was no longer standing in the doorway. I walked over to Cheryl and held out my hand for her to shake. I was really surprised when she pulled me into a hug. I awkwardly returned it. I could her Annabeth chuckling behind me.

"Its really nice to meet you, Percy," she said after letting me go.

"You too, ma'am," I replied.

"Call me Cheryl. I hate 'ma'am'. It makes me feel old," she said with a smile.

"OK, Cheryl," I said. She smiled and turned to walk into the sitting room. Annabeth came up to me, took my hand and pulled me after Cheryl.

"Frederick, honey, this is Percy," she said to her husband who was sitting on the sofa. He looked up, and suddenly I was stuck in a stare-off. Not good.

I walked forward and once again held out my hand to be shaken.

"Its nice to meet you, sir," I said.

He stood up and took my hand. I think he was trying to crush all the bones in my fingers. And he very near succeeded. I tried my best not to show any signs of pain. When he let go, I tried to massage my sore hand without drawing too much attention to myself.

"Please, sit down," said Cheryl, motioning towards the second sofa.

I sat down, and Annabeth sat next to me. She laced her fingers through mine. I wasn't sure, but I thought that she was trying to prove something to her father. Maybe that she wasn't going to break up with me anytime soon.

We all sat in silence for a while, then Cheryl got up to fetch some drinks. It was silent for another minute, and then Mr Chase broke it.

"You two haven't… consummated your relationship, have you?" out of the corner of my eye, I saw that Annabeth looked like a tomato. I was positive that I looked the same.

"Dad!" cried Annabeth.

"N-no!" I stuttered out. "No, sir! I only asked her to be my girlfriend yesterday," I quickly explained.

Then we heard Cheryl call from the kitchen, "Leave them be, Frederick!"

He quickly glared at the kitchen door. When he looked back in our direction, he seemed a little less tense. I think he even smiled. After Annabeth's step-mom came back into the room, the conversation picked up and turned to school. After about half an hour, Annabeth managed to rescue us.

"Dad, Cheryl, we're meant to meet Thalia in twenty minutes. Is that OK?" she asked.

He dad was just about to say something, when Cheryl cut in.

"Of course. Just be home in time for dinner," she said.

"OK, I'll see you later." And then she dragged me out of the apartment.

She leaned against the wall outside the door. "That was embarrassing," she muttered.

"It wasn't that bad," I said. "But I was scared that your dad was going to kill me."

She looked up at me and smiled. "I guess it went as well as it could have."

I nodded. "So where are we meeting Thalia?"

She started laughing. "That was a cover story Seaweed Brain! I just wanted to get out of there," she explained. "We could go get lunch or something?"

"We could," I agreed. "Or…" I trailed off and leaned forward and kissed her gently. She kissed me back and laced her arms around my neck and began playing with the hair at the back of my neck. I gently pushed her back against the wall. I was just about to try opening my mouth, when I remembered where we were and that somebody could see us and tell either of our parents. So reluctantly, I pulled back and just hugged her for a while.

"Do you want to go see a movie?" I asked her.

"Sure." She smiled. She took my hand again, lacing our fingers once more. I was glad that now I had at least met her parents and they had approved from what I could tell. Now I had the whole afternoon to enjoy with my girlfriend.

**A.N.:**_ that's quite long. I'm very proud of myself! For the reviews suggesting some drama: I have the perfect plan! I had it worked out even before I received the reviews. But thank you very much for the ideas anyway._

_A reminder: votes in reviews for the next story will count! _

_Thank you for reading (:_


	17. Chapter 17

**Outlaw: Running From Love**

**Chapter 17**

**A.N.: **_Hi, again. If you're still reading this, thank you for your support, patience and reviews. I really appreciate it. And thank you to everyone (especially Ambassador of Hades) who gave me advice on the issue I mentioned last chapter. It's been very helpful. _

**ANNABETH POV:**

**One Month Later:**

Drop everything now

_Meet me in the pouring rain_

_Kiss me on the sidewalk_

_Take away the pain_

'_Cause I see sparks fly whenever you smile_

_Get me with those green eyes, baby, as the lights go down_

_Give me something that'll haunt me when you're not around_

'_Cause I see sparks fly whenever you smile_

As cheesy as it sounds, as Taylor Swift's Sparks Fly played on my iPod, I couldn't help but think of Percy. I thought that the chorus sounded exactly like us as I sang along to it. I found this happened with lots of songs. I would just be listening to them and find something relating to our relationship. Really, it was kind of funny.

I was getting ready in my bedroom. Percy and I had been together for a month now, and tonight he was taking me to see a movie and then have dinner. Knowing him, it would probably be some action movie and then Burger King. But I didn't care. I would be with him.

I was looking through my cupboard, searching for the jacket I wanted to wear. I was wearing my blue skinny jeans, a pair of grey flats, my snood and my cream sweater with a brown owl on the front. I was looking for my dark grey coat to go with the outfit. I had just found it and pulled in on when there was a knock on my door.

"Come in!" I called.

Cheryl opened the door and poked her head inside.

"Percy is here," she told me. She was wearing that smile that suggested that we had some sort of inside joke about my boyfriend.

"I'll be right there," I told her while rolling my eyes.

"You look lovely, darling," she said with a smile.

"You think so?" I was doubting my outfit choice. Was it too formal? Or too casual?

Cheryl nodded. "Its perfect."

"Thank you," I said. She nodded before closing the door.

I looked in the mirror and sighed at my reflection. I picked up the earrings and necklace Hazel had given to me and put them on. I was a little bit nervous, and I had no idea why. I took a deep breath before picking up my phone, purse and Chap Stick, throwing them in my bag and leaving the room.

When I walked into the sitting room, I saw my dad on the sofa reading a book. Very normal. And my brothers sitting on the floor in front of the TV playing video games with Percy. Now very normal. During the past month my family had really begun to like Percy. Well, my dad pretended not to like him but I'm pretty sure he just doesn't want to let on that he's really fine with Percy and I being together. The twins adore him because he plays games with them.

Percy looked up form the video game and his eyes met mine.

"Boys will be boys," he said and shrugged before turning back to the game.

I laughed. "We'll be late if we don't leave now, Percy."

I groaned and (reluctantly) put down his controller on the coffee table. I laughed at him again. Then he walked over to me and gave me a hug, lifting my feet off the ground.

"Percy! Put me down!" I yelled.

"No," he replied stubbornly. Instead, he flung me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. I pounded on his back with my fists, but he wouldn't budge.

"Good bye, Mr Chase," he said to my father.

"Bye, Percy," Dad replied. "Have her home by ten thirty."

"Yes, sir. Bye guys." He waved to the twins.

"Bye, Percy," they replied simultaneously, not taking their eyes off the TV.

Percy walked out of the living room and past the kitchen.

"Bye, Cheryl," he called out.

"Good bye, Perc-" she paused after looking up. "Well this is one way to pick a girl up for a date."

I couldn't see her expression because my bum was in the air and my head near Percy's waist.

"Don't encourage him!" I told my step-mom. She just laughed.

"See you later, Annabeth."

Percy turned and made his way over to the door. Now I could see that, after getting over the shock of seeing Percy carrying me like a sack, she was struggling not to laugh.

"See you," I mumbled.

When the door had closed behind us, I heard her break down in a fit of laughter.

XXXX

After the movie, we decided to go for a walk on the pier and get take aways. Percy wouldn't let me pay for anything, which was very sweet but equally annoying.

We stopped at a small pizza place and got one to share. We walked for a while before we found an open bench that over looked the ocean. As we sat on the bench, we ate out pizza in silence.

"You know something?" Percy asked, breaking the silence as the threw the empty box into the garbage can next to him.

"What?" I asked.

"This last month has been really great," he told me sincerely as he looked into my eyes.

"I know," I told him. I leaned closer and softly kissed his lips. He kissed me back before pulling me into a hug.

"Wise Girl I really think that I-" he was cut off by a high-pitched yell of "Percy!"

We turned towards the source of the noise. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that Percy looked like he wanted the ground to swallow him up. Coming towards us was a girl maybe a little older than me with frizzy red hair, jeans with paint on them and rips at the knees and a jacket, which was also covered in paint splotches.

"Crap," Percy muttered before saying louder, "Hello, Rachel."

"It's been too long!" she cried as she pulled him into a hug. I think it is safe to say that he looked extremely uncomfortable.

Percy pulled away from Rachel and took my hand in his.

"This is Annabeth," he told her.

Rachel glanced at me and said, "Hi," before she continued talking to Percy.

"We should meet up sometime because we really need to catch up, I mean, its been, what, two years and so much has happened and I really miss-"

"Rachel!" Percy yelled, getting her to shut up. He took a deep breath. "I'm not going to meet up with you any time soon."

She looked really confused, and obviously hadn't put two and two together and worked out that Percy was with me. Meanwhile, I had. I realised that this was _the_ Rachel. The same Rachel who had cheated on Percy.

"But why not?" she asked. "We have so much to talk about! Like Ethan was cheating on _me_ the whole time and-"

"Because as far as I remember, I dumped you for cheating on me. So in my opinion, we are no longer friends," Percy explained. "And did you never stop and think that maybe I haven't seen or spoken to you in two years because I didn't want to?"

Rachel looked totally taken aback.

"And I'm with Annabeth now, so don't expect me to spring back to you."

"You're together?" she asked, her voice practically dripping with disbelief while motioning to the two of us. Percy held up our intertwined hands to give her proof.

"Oh."

"Good bye, Rachel," Percy said. It sounded very much like a warning.

She bent down and kissed Percy on the lips before turning to walk off.

I could feel anger boiling in my blood. This was one of those cartoon moments where steam comes out of the person's ears. I was so angry, I didn't even know what I was doing.

I leaped up off the bench and grabbed her shoulder. When Rachel turned around (probably to ask what I was doing) I slapped her across the face. She yelped in pain (it wasn't even that hard) before turning and running off.

"Nobody kisses my boyfriend in front of me and gets away with it!" I shouted after her.

I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I turned to punch the person, anger still filling my mind. It was Percy, and luckily he managed to stop my fist from connecting with his face.

He took both my hands in his and made me face him.

"Calm down, Wise Girl."

I sighed. "Maybe we should head home? She kind of ruined the atmosphere and my dad will want me to be home soon."

He nodded and kissed my forehead. "Sure thing."

We avoided talking about that had happened during the walk home. I had calmed down enough to enjoy the walk and just being with Percy.

I still couldn't believe that Rachel had had the nerve to actually kiss Percy after he had not only told her that we were together, but after he had also said that he didn't want to see her again. I tried to change my train of thought to happier things and I began thinking about Hazel. I hadn't spoken to her in a while.

It didn't feel like much time had passed when we arrived outside my apartment door.

"I'm sorry about Rachel," Percy whispered.

"Its OK," I replied, also whispering.

He smiled that amazing lopsided smile of his and leaned in to kiss me. His lips on mine were the best ever feeling in the world. They seemed to fit together with mine perfectly. And they moved perfectly with mine. He traced his tongue lightly over my lower lip, so I opened y mouth slightly to let him in. If I had been told a year before this that I would enjoy kissing somebody like this, I never would have believed that person.

We were interrupted when the door to my apartment flew open. We jumped apart to find my father standing there, arms crossed and foot tapping.

"Its after ten thirty," was all he said before going back inside and closing the door.

I could feel that my face was flushed and Percy's was too.

"I'd better go inside before he comes out again," I said.

"I should probably also get home," Percy replied. He leaned down and kissed me once more, softly, on the lips.

"Good night, Wise Girl," he said as he began to walk towards the stairs. He was looking over his shoulder the whole time.

"Good night, Seaweed Brain," I told him before going inside to face my dad.

Strangely, he wasn't mad at all that he had caught Percy and I kissing outside. He was only a little mad that it had been after ten thirty and I was still outside.

"Next time, tell me that you are outside so I know that you haven't missed your curfew," was all he said before giving me a hug and going to bed.

When I climbed into bed that night, I thought about what had happened with Rachel today. Something gave me the feeling that she was up to something. And whatever that was… it was not going to be good.

**A.N.: **_there will be drama in the next chapter or the one after that! Who's exited? Ha ha. I watched Wrath of the Titans yesterday. It was quite a good movie actually. I think they got mixed up with who created the labyrinth. Unless there was a second one?_

_I also baked blue peanut butter cookies yesterday! Hopefully I will still have some left next Saturday for Percy's birthday. _

_Thanks for reading (:_


	18. Chapter 18

**Outlaw: Running From Love**

**Chapter 18**

**A.N.: **_Hello all my loverly readers! Yes, I did mean to write 'loverly'. I'm so, so, so sorry that it has taken so long to update! I've had so many projects over these past two weeks, I have barely been able to breathe! Luckily I only have one left and then only all the cycle tests before the end of term. _

_I probably wont update this coming weekend because I will be away on Saturday and Sunday for a Youth Alpha camp. But I will take a notebook with me and start working on the next chapter of 'A Life In One-Shots'._

_To the person who asked, I did mean closet. In South Africa, we call it a cupboard and I know that in England it's a wardrobe. I forgot about that, but I will go back and change it._

_Thank you to everybody who sent me a PM! _

**PERCY POV:**

After mine Annabeth and I saw Rachel that night, I didn't see or hear from her for a long time. Theories of what she was up to swarmed my head for the next few weeks. One thing I had learned about Rachel: she was always planning something!

The day after we saw her, Annabeth and I went to the park. She had seemed a little off and wasn't acting like herself. While we were sitting on the soft green grass eating ice cream, I asked her what was wrong. She replied:

"I think that Rachel is up to something."

I had to admit to her that I got that feeling too. My guess was that she would try to break us up. She could try, but it would never work.

"I know what you mean," I replied after a pause. "And knowing Rachel, she probably is."

I knew that this probably wasn't reassuring her at all, but I couldn't lie to her.

"I just hope we're wrong…" Annabeth muttered just loud enough for me to hear.

"Me too, Wise Girl. Me too."

The day after that, while we were doing homework in my bedroom, I had told Annabeth something that I hadn't meant to. I knew that I would tell her, but I had wanted to say it better. Not just blurt it out during a homework session while we were sitting on the floor.

She had been trying to explain the Pythagorean theorem. Of course, I didn't understand it until she had told me very slowly and carefully about five times exactly how to work it out.

Naturally, this lead to her insulting my intelligence for a while, and I mocked her for being so smart. The playful teasing went back and forth until it happened.

"OK, I'll give you an example and you give me the answer. I'll make an easy-"

"I love you," I said cutting her off.

She stopped talking, mid word, and just stared at me.

"Wh-what?"

I looked away from her face and down to the carpet. All of a sudden, I realised what I had actually said. I liked my lips and swallowed before looking up at her again.

"I really do," I said sincerely. Then I realised something and began to ramble. "But if you don't feel the same way, I will understand cause it's only been a month and two days but I really think that I love you and-"

This time she cut me off. But not the same way I had cut her off. She cut me off with a kiss.

When she pulled back, I noticed that she was smiling at me.

"Of course I feel the same way," she told me. She hesitated slightly. "I love you too."

For the rest of the week, I was buzzing. It was like being high. On love though, not drugs.

Then all of a sudden it felt like my whole world was crashing down…

XXXX

It was a Friday night, and I was on my way to fetch Annabeth. We decided to go out tonight with Thalia, Nico and some friends from school. I was looking forward to it. I also had a special surprise for Annabeth. I had bought her a ring. It was a cheap one, yes, but I was pretty sure she would like it any way. It was going to be my way of indirectly telling any guy who tried to hit on her that she was with me.

I was looking at the ring as I walked downstairs to her apartment. I lost my footing and stumbled on the last stair. I felt my body bump into someone, and I just hoped that it wasn't Mrs Victor. If it was, I was sure to get a lecture about watching where I was walking from the resident grouch.

But it wasn't her. It was somebody much worse.

As I looked up to apologise, I saw red. Literally. Red, frizzy hair. _Rachel._

"What do you want?" I snarled (which is very unlike me).

She smiled innocently at me. "Oh, Percy," she giggled. "I want you, silly!"

I raised an eyebrow, silently asking her to explain.

"You see," she continued. "Ever since I found out that Ethan was cheating on me, I realised that I wanted you back. You were so good to me."

I snorted in laughter. "You obviously missed that part where I said that I'm over you and that I have a girlfriend."

"That blonde bimbo?" she asked. "Please. I'm worth so much more than _that_!"

I shook my head in disbelief. I couldn't believe she was doing this. I tried my best not to show the anger bubbling beneath my skin. I clenched my fists and looked my ex square in the eye.

"Annabeth is worth twenty of you Rachel!" I said, my voice rising with my anger.

Her eyes flickered with disbelief, before she smiled again.

"I'll just have to prove you wrong I guess," she said with a shrug.

Before I knew what was happening, her lips were on mine. And it felt horrible. I had trouble believing that I had ever done this willingly. Annabeth's lips seemed to mould to mine when we kissed, but with Rachel it just felt like a sloppy mess. I tried to push Rachel off me, but she wouldn't budge.

Then I hear a door close and a sob.

I pushed Rachel really hard and was finally able to break free from her horrible kisses. What I saw almost made my heart shatter (it actually felt like it did).

"Annabeth!" I cried. _This won't end well, _saidthe little voice in my head that I didn't hear often. I didn't hear it often, because this was the voice that was always right.

Annabeth stood outside her door with tears streaming down her face. Her eyes were red and beginning to get puffy. I heard her attempt to hold back a sob, but it managed to escape and she brought her hand up to cover her mouth.

"So you were just playing me this whole time," she said through her tears.

"No!" I yelled. "Annabeth, this is a mistake!" I took a step forward, and she took one back to get closer to her front door.

"I know," she said, and for a second I thought that she was going to forgive me. "The mistake was ever believing that you loved me. That I meant something to you. I can't believe that I really thought that you would change for me…" I could feel tears in my eyes.

"Oh, so now you even force some tears out!" she continued.

"I really do love you! I really have changed! Rachel forced herself on-"

"Of course she did!"

"I swear, Wise Girl!" I said, trying my best to reason with her.

"Don't use that 'Wise Girl' stuff on me!" she shouted. "We're over!"

Then she turned to open her door and go back inside.

"Wait!" I called out frantically. "Please!"

I ran forwards to try and catch her before she was gone. But I was too late. The door clicked shut just as I reached it.

"Oh, isn't that a shame?"

I had forgotten that Rachel was still here.

I turned to face her, and I hoped that she could see the fire in my eyes.

"Well," she continued. "I'm glad that's over! I did enjoy seeing that slut crying though…"

What I did next went against everything my mother had ever taught me about treating women. Afterwards my reasoning was that Rachel wasn't even a girl, she was a she-devil.

I walked over to her, and slapped her clean across the face. She gasped, and tears sprung to her eyes. There would be a nice red mark there the next day…

"You've ruined everything!" I sobbed as I turned and walked away. I found it hard to believe that I had ever been in love with her. I stopped and called out to her: "And maybe you should take a look at yourself before calling somebody a 'slut'."

I heard her gasp, but I didn't care.

I didn't care that I had hurt Rachel, or that my mom would be disappointed with me for hitting her even if she was the one who did wrong.

I cared that I had lost Annabeth. I had lost her so soon after I had gained her trust. I cared that my stupid reputation had come back to bite me. And I cared that my heart was in a million pieces.

**A.N.: **_slightly cliché, I know. Cheesy, I know. Short chapter, I know. But like I said, I have had so little time to do this. Next chapter will be Annabeth's POV on some of this chapter. I hope to update this soon! _

_Thank you for all the reviews on the last chapter and thank you for still reading this! My poll is still open to vote for my next story, so please vote!_

_This story is getting near to the end, but I'm not sure how many more chapters it will be. But that means there will be a new story in its place! And the occasional one-shot._

_Til the next chapter, goodbye!_

_PS: please tell me if you cried or not reading this, because I almost did writing it!_


	19. Chapter 19

**Outlaw: Running From Love**

**Chapter 19**

**A.N.: **_I know! I know! I'm sorry the update took so long! Like I said, I had youth camp and this week I haven't had any time at all because I have been getting homework every day, I'm not home in the afternoon and I had an art practical to finish. I should probably be studying fro the test series which starts Monday, but I couldn't be bothered to pick up a boring Business Economics book_

_And to top all that off, I haven't been able to put this chapter into words. I knew exactly how I wanted it to be, but I couldn't find the words. I think I got it though. There are review replies at the bottom._

**Disclaimer: **_I realise that I've been forgetting the disclaimer, but you all know that PJO isn't mine so… anyway, all rights belong to Rick Riordan who needs to write faster so the HoO series will be finished._

**Note: **_Annabeth id a bit OOC in this chapter. Let me know how badly OOC she is so that I can concentrate on keeping her in character next time._

**ANNABETH POV:**

"Bye, see you guys later!" I called to my family as I pulled on my coat. "See if you can finish the model, Matthew."

"OK, Annabeth! It will be finished when you get back," he replied from the living room.

"Bye, Annabeth!" the rest of my family chorused from the living room. I smiled. It was hard to believe that Cheryl and I had ever disliked each other. I think that I came to terms with the fact that my mom wasn't coming back and that Cheryl was the closest thing I would have to one.

I picked up my keys from the table and put them into my bag before unlatching the door and stepping outside.

I had been looking forward to mine and Percy's date. I imagined what we would talk about and what he would compliment me on tonight as I made sure that the door was locked. Then I turned around.

What I saw almost literally broke my heart in two.

There was Percy. But he wasn't alone. Rachel was with him. But they weren't arguing on shouting at each other. They were kissing. I let out a sob that I can only describe as sounding heartbroken and weak. Percy pushed Rachel off him and cried out my name.

"Annabeth!" His voice sounded the way his eyes looked. Like he had been caught doing something he wasn't supposed to be doing and was scrambling for ways to explain himself.

I hadn't noticed the tears streaming down my face until now.

"So you were just playing me this whole time," I said through the tears. I couldn't believe that after I had trusted him and given him a chance, after he had promised me that he wouldn't be like he was, he still went back to his old ways.

"No!" he yelled. "Annabeth, this is a mistake!" He took a step forward, and I took one back to get closer to my door.

I wanted to run. I wanted to run and hide myself away from the world until I forgot this heartbreak. But I replied to him.

"I know," I told him.

For a second it looked like he thought that I was going to forgive him and say that I knew that it wasn't what it looked like and there was some logical explanation for what had happened.

"The mistake was ever believing that you loved me," I continued. "That I meant something to you. I can't believe that I really thought that you would change for me…"

I could see that there were tears in his eyes. _He really is a great actor, _I told myself. _You'll be better off without his cheating behind in your life._

"Oh, so now you even force some tears out!" I said, managing to voiced my thoughts about him being a good actor.

"I really do love you! I really have changed! Rachel forced herself on-" he began.

"Of course she did!"

"I swear, Wise Girl!" But I wasn't falling for that _Wise Girl _crap.

"Don't use that 'Wise Girl' stuff on me!" I shouted at him. "We're over!" I said with a sob.

I turned and quickly unlocked the door to get back inside.

"Wait!" Percy called after me. Then I closed the door and his voice was blocked out. Besides, I didn't want to hear his excuses. I was nothing to him. All the "I love you's", the hugs and kisses… they had all been fake.

I stood with my back against the door and slowly slid down until I was sitting on the floor. I heard footsteps, and then Cheryl and Matthew were standing there.

"Are you OK?" my little brother asked. I didn't answer, and sat with my head between my knees. Instead, I shook my head.

"Sweetie, what happened," asked Cheryl as she sat down next to me. I felt Matthew sit on the other side of me. Then I heard footsteps, two pairs, telling me that my dad and Bobby were coming to see what was going on.

"H-he was outside, with his ex!" I managed to stammer out. "He was k-kissing her!"

I felt a pair of arms wrap around my shoulders. Somehow I knew that it was Cheryl. Then I felt a smaller pair wrapped themselves around my neck. I knew it was Matthew because Bobby wasn't good at showing his emotions.

"It's OK," said my step-mom. "It's all going to be OK."

I appreciated the comfort that my family was offering, but I didn't want to hear that it was all OK, that it was going to be fine and that I would get over it. I didn't want pity because my first boyfriend, first _love_, had cheated on me. I didn't want to hear what anybody had to say.

"It's not OK!" I yelled through my tears. "He told me he loved me and he made me believe him when he never meant it! He promised that he was different!"

I got up, pushing Cheryl and Matthew's arms away from me. I started running to my room, but my dad stopped me. He reached out his arms and pulled me into a hug. I struggled at first, trying to get away, but then I gave in and just let him hold me. I sobbed into my father's shoulder for a while before I pulled away. He gave me a sad smile, which I tried to return before continuing on to my bedroom. The tears had stopped falling now, but I had a feeling that they would be back soon.

As I closed the door behind me, I could hear them talking in hushed voices.

"I've never seen her so emotional," my dad whispered.

"Me neither," answered Cheryl. "But I can't believe that Percy would hurt her on purpose. You saw how he acted around her."

Dad sighed. "I don't know, honey. I would never expect it of the boy. He was always such a gentleman. Except when he carried her out of here over his shoulder."

I didn't want to hear anymore, so I turned on my iPod and put my earphones on. I selected shuffle mode, and the first song to play was "I Won't Give Up" by Jason Mraz. When the chorus came on, the tears started up again. I lay on my bed and silently cried into my pillow.

A while later, I felt someone sit next to me on the bed. I had been lying on my side, facing away from the door, so I couldn't see who it was. I guessed that it was on of the twins because the person hadn't moved the bed much and was therefore small and light. This meant that it was probably Matthew because I was much closer t him that I was to Bobby.

I turned to look and my assumption was confirmed. I pulled out my earphones and put the music on pause.

Matthew sat on the edge of my bed with a Lego model in his hands. I recognised it as one that I had designed. The same on he had promised to finish building for me when I got home.

"Please don't be sad," he said softly, holding out the Lego construction to me.

I wiped my tear stained cheeks and my eyes. I smiled sadly at my little half-brother and took the model from him.

"Thanks, Matt," I said. I examined the model. My brother really was a perfectionist. All the colours matched and corresponded and the model was built exactly to my design.

"Its beautiful," I told him. He smiled brightly at the compliment. Then he saw my almost expressionless face and his smile disappeared.

"What did Percy do?" he asked gently.

I tear trickled out of the corner of my eye. I quickly wiped it away before replying.

"He broke his promises."

XXXX

I stayed in my room all night. I didn't leave even for dinner. When Cheryl came to call me I told her that I wasn't hungry, so she left me alone and I didn't eat.

Instead, I Skyped Hazel. I didn't want to talk long, but I needed to tell her what had happened. After all, she had been the one I had gone to for advice through out the whole relationship.

I cried again when I told her. She cried when I cried.

"I would love to tell you that I think that your parents are right and that it's a mistake, but I've never met the guy so I can't judge," she said after I told her what I had over heard my parents saying.

"I know," I replied. "But after everything he told me and promised me I really thought that he meant it."

After that conversation, I decided to go to bed. After I had put on my pyjamas and climbed under the covers, I heard a knocking on my window.

I climbed out of bed and grabbed the baseball bat from the corner of my room as a precaution, and went to open the curtains. I hadn't really thought that it would be a burglar or a murderer, but I got a shock when I saw who it was.

Percy stood outside on the fire escape. He looked like he had been crying. I shook my head and sighed. As much as I wanted to go out onto the fire escape with him and hug and kiss him, I couldn't. He had hurt me and broken his promises.

He looked at me, and I could see that his beautiful green eyes looked hurt. But he was acting. He had to be. He was a player and he had just been using me for his games. His only interest was to see how far he could get with me.

I didn't want to see the pretend hurt on his face and in his eyes. As tears began to fall from my eyes yet again, I closed the curtains quickly. I collapsed onto my bed and prepared to cry myself to sleep.

But he kept knocking on the window. Percy stayed out there all night. I somehow managed to sleep through it by softly playing classical music.

Around midnight he had tried talking to me, but I ignored him.

"Annabeth, it was a mistake! She flung herself on me! I really love you…"

I blocked out his voice. He had even pretended to sound heartbroken. But I wouldn't fall for it. It was over. The two of us were done. I wasn't going to fall for his games again, and he wasn't going to hurt me again.

XXXX

The next morning he cornered me on the stairs when I was leaving to meet Thalia. He looked like he hadn't slept in a week, but I knew that it had only been one night.

He tried to talk to me, but I ignored him.

"Wise Girl, let me explain," he begged.

I didn't reply. Instead, I ran outside to get a taxi to Thalia's place. I didn't want to hear his stupid excuses.

But something in the back of my mind was nagging at me that maybe he was telling the truth. Maybe it was a mistake and Rachel had just thrown herself on him. I wouldn't put it past her anyway…

_No! _I reminded myself. _He broke your heart._

But the other side of my brain kept telling me that maybe I was wrong…

**A.N.: **_I don't think this is a great chapter, but hopefully its long enough to make up for that. _

**Review replies:**

**HeadOverHeelsInHate: **_thank you for reviewing pretty much every story that I've posted! I kept getting emails during my extra mural art class. Really made my day!_

**killintimez: **_ha ha thanks for telling me. At least four people cried that I know of! I'm not sure if that should make me happy or not… anyway, thanks for the review._

**greek goddess 1000: **_I have no idea what "Fhu rebx hw," means. Unless that was fangirling?_

**Louisa4533: **_thank you for the feedback! I agree, I've often read stories where the author has said that they cried and I sat reading it with a face of stone and only a sad feeling. And thank you for letting me know that the spelling and grammar is good._

**dollyluvsya101: **_I'm glad you enjoyed it! Three hours? That impressive!_

**pjogeek4172000: **_I know that Rachel is very OOC, but Its only that way to fit in with the story. Only after I was half way, I thought that I maybe should have swapped her and Calypso, but they would both have been OOC then. I usually like Rachel, but it sort of fits with the story this way._

** ; **_thank you! I hope you enjoy the rest!_

** : **_she is Annabeth, she is always right. Her pride is getting in the way as usual!_

**CrazyLove27: **_I freaking love reading your reviews, they make me laugh and make my day! And yes, I have read Twilight. I really enjoyed it, but I think PJO is better to be honest. And I know, Edward was being drastic but he thought it was the best thing (sorry if gave something away). _

**Pregnantnun227: **_I hope this chapter and the ones to follow will make up for it! Thanks for the review._

**MythologyNerdxDemiGod: **_thanks for letting me know! I don't have a problem with Rachel, I just didn't like her and Percy together. I'm kind of like her in some ways so I can't really not like her. _

**Ambassador of Hades: **_you also leave the nicest reviews! Thank you_

_This story has 191 reviews now, so can we get it to 220? Please? Ha ha!_

_And I really need some more votes on my poll! The votes are really close and I would prefer a definite win. So please vote if you haven't! _

_Now go review! I'm kidding, but it would make me happy! and remember: no flames (: _


	20. Chapter 20

**Outlaw: Running From Love**

**Chapter 20**

**A.N.: **_I can't believe that this is chapter 20 already! :D and 219 reviews is not bad either! One less than I asked for is really good! So, call me a happy author! _

_Time for a few replies: _

**waterbluewings: **_please don't hate me… ): but I'm glad that you liked it (:_

**Arrow of Artemis: **_ha ha your review made me laugh! Not really sure why, but I agree that she is really stubborn!_

**malia: **_thanks for reading! If you don't have an account, vote in a review for the next story ;) _

**ButterflyFlyToMe: (review for ch8, 9) **_yay! I'm awesome :D thanks for the review, you have a valid point… but I did sort of want to get to that part soon-ish. People always seem amazed when I tell them where I come from… I'd also love to meet some South African fans, there aren't many that I know of :/ I know that Annabeth did end up being slightly insecure, but I didn't decide that I was going to make her that way. It just ended up like that due to her lack of experience with boys and how Percy was with her and the over-all confusion she felt (:_

**cantwaittillifall: **_thank you for the complements, made my day! I also hope that you enjoy reading the rest of this story and tat my writing stays consistent or improves!_

**CrazyLove27: **_don't worry, there's nothing wrong with me :P soon, my friend. Soon… (hopefully you know what I'm talking about!)_

**KatieChee01: **_I don't think it's a bad thing if you feel like crying! It means that my writing evokes emotion (: and glad you've enjoyed it so far!_

**p3rf3ct-nightmar397:**_sorry to have broken your heart… and I know, the nagging voice that you try to suppress is usually right…_

**Louisa4533: **_well, I almost made it! Just missed it by one! Yes, curse her out as much as you want! I agree, Romeo and Juliet is kind of boring… I'm not a Shakespeare fan. Ii never really thought of it being R&J-ish, but anyway (:_

**Pokemonchen: **_HAPPINESS WILL PREVAIL! :D don't panic yet :P _

**The L0st One: **_well, thanks for not setting your cat/dog/whatever it was on me! I give you full permission to if I ever take too long to update!_

**Ambassador of Hades: **_I don't even know why I'm replying here, I could use Facebook, email or Google+ instead, but thanks for the really long review! I try to make it as un-girlygirl as possible, and apparently I'm succeeding! And thanks for the explanation of your name, it was really interesting._

**Jackattack5478: **_don't worry, I won't abandon this story! If I ever took a break from writing, it would be between stories (:_

**Pregnantnun227: **_deal! I'll post chapters, and you can review! (: Sounds like a plan! By the way, your username had me very curious… _

_That's a lot of replies to a lot of reviews! Thank you all so much for the continuous support even if you've never reviewed. Just knowing that you've read and favourited/followed this story means a lot._

**Disclaimer: **_my name is Kayleigh. Close to Haley, but even if I was Haley, Rick probably still wouldn't let me own the rights to Percy Jackson (even if the stories were inspired by Haley). And Haley and Rick are guys. And I'm not. So there._

**PERCY POV:**

When I walked in the door, I didn't greet my mom or Paul. I didn't reply when they asked why I was home so early. I didn't make excuses when my mom asked to talk to me. I just walked to my room and slammed the door.

I dropped down onto my bed and pulled a pillow over my face. Then I screamed. I screamed, and screamed, and screamed. I screamed into my pillow until my throat hurt and my mom pulled the pillow away from me. It was only then that I realised my cheeks were wet with tears that were still falling. _Toughen up, dude! _a small voice in the back of my mind said.

"Percy, what happened?" my mom asked in a stern voice. Somehow, she managed to sound strict and caring at the same time.

I didn't reply, and instead rolled over so that I didn't have to face her. I didn't want to tell her that everything I had worked to get away from had come back to bite me in the butt.

"Percy, honey, talk to me."

I waited for a few seconds before replying.

"Rachel kissed me outside Annabeth's apartment and now she thinks that I'm cheating. She won't even hear me out!" I said all this with my back still to her.

There was silence for about a minute. Then…

"So your bad reputation came back to knock you down, huh?"

I nodded. Then I found the courage to roll over and face her.

"But she won't even give me the opportunity to explain what happened!" I told her.

"You know that Annabeth is acting this way because of your past behaviour, right?"

I nodded. "But how do I make her believe me?"

Mom sighed and said, "You're just going to have to give her some time. Maybe then she will see that she was wrong and that you have been faithful."

I shook my head. "You don't know her like I do. She's much too stubborn to admit that she was wrong without a valid reason."

"Then you will just have to give her one."

XXXX

I didn't eat that night. I left my bedroom only to go to the bathroom and once when Paul asked me to watch the game with him. (Mom had told him what had happened. He'd overheard us talking.) I gave in to his suggestion, thinking that it would take my mind of Annabeth. It didn't.

I couldn't concentrate on the game at all. One of the players had blonde hair, which made me think of Annabeth. Another player had curly hair, which made me think of Annabeth. And one even had the surname "Chases", which made me think of Annabeth.

At half time, I couldn't take it anymore, and left the room.

"Where are you going? The game isn't over yet!" my step-dad called out.

"Everything makes me think of her!" I snapped. I didn't mean to sound rude or disrespectful, it just came out that way.

I went back to my room and lay with my head in the pillow again. Then I had an idea.

I got up and pulled on one of my warmer hoodies. I grabbed my phone and stuck it in my pocket. Then I opened my window and began to climb down the fire escape.

I stopped when I reached Annabeth's window. I could see her silhouette climbing into bed before she switched off the light. Then I tapped on the window.

I faintly saw the outline of her body get out of bed and grab the baseball bat that I knew was in the corner of the room. I held my breath as she drew back the curtain.

When she saw me, the first emotion to register on her face was shock. Then she looked like she wanted nothing better then to hug me and take me back right then. But then her face morphed into an angry expression, and she drew the curtains again.

I stayed out there, waiting, hoping that she would come out and talk to me. It was cold and my breath was fogging up and my fingers, nose and ears were numb. I was thinking about going back for fin gloves and a hat, but I stayed there.

At midnight, I tried talking to her.

"Annabeth, it was a mistake! She flung herself on me! I really love you…"

She still didn't say anything. But then again, she was probably asleep by now. I pulled out my phone and looked through the pictures of us. I smiled through the tears that spilled over yet again. We looked so happy in those pictures… _I'd give anything to go back to yesterday… _I thought.

At around four in the morning, I got up and climbed back up the fire escape. I hadn't gotten any sleep. I had stayed up, trying to convince myself that she might come outside and talk to me, forgive me. But deep down I knew that wouldn't happen.

I had another plan to put into action, but I needed to try and get a few hours sleep first.

XXXX

I stood on the stairs below Annabeth's apartment from eight o'clock that morning, waiting for her to leave the building. I hadn't gotten much sleep even after I had climbed into bed. I think I slept for maybe an hour at the most. The rest of the time I just lay there staring at the ceiling.

When I had walked into the kitchen, Mom and Paul stopped their hushed conversation (probably about me) and just looked at me.

"Didn't you sleep at all, Perce?" Paul asked with a worried expression on his face.

"For about an hour," I replied as I sat down for breakfast.

Mom put a plate of blue waffles down in front of me. There were blueberries, cream and syrup on them, so I knew that she was trying her best to cheer me up. Usually, blue blueberry waffles would have me jumping up and down in excitement, before eating them so quickly that I often got stomach aches. But not this time.

I picked at my food, only swallowing a few bites.

At ten to eight, I excused myself from the table, leaving most of my breakfast untouched.

"I'm not hungry," was all I said. I walked into the hall and pulled on a coat, grabbed my keys and opened the door to let myself out. I ran down the stairs to the lobby.

"Has Annabeth left today?" I breathlessly asked the clerk on duty.

"Blonde girl? Freaky eyes?"

I was annoyed at him for calling her eyes freaky, but I didn't have time to get aggressive.

"Yeah, that's her."

He didn't even look up the whole time he was talking to me. Apparently, looking at bikini models Twitter profiles was much more important.

"Nope," he said, popping the 'p'. "Haven't seen her."

I didn't even bother to thank him. After all, he hadn't been much help. At least I knew that she was still in the building.

XXXX

I waited on the flight of stairs below her apartment for about an hour and a half. Then finally she showed up, looking startled to see me waiting for her.

"Wise Girl, let me explain," I begged her.

She didn't say anything. She just ignored me and ran down the stairs. I followed her, trying to catch up to her and maybe (hopefully) get her to listen to me. But before I could stop her, she had climbed into a cab and locked the door behind her. She didn't even look back.

_Think, Percy, think! _I yelled at myself inside my head. _Where would she be going alone that's far enough that she would need a taxi to get there? _

And that's when it clicked. _Thalia._

I pulled my phone out of my pocket so quickly that I almost dropped it. I quickly pressed Thalia's speed dial and waited for her to pick up.

"Percy why the _hell _are you calling me so early?" she asked, her voice still groggy with sleep.

"Sorry," I replied. I almost grinned at her annoyed tone. But I didn't. "It's an emergency."

She sighed heavily and I could hear rustling sheets. I really had caught her at a bad time if she was getting out of bed.

"What have you done now?" She sounded irritated.

"It wasn't me who messed up this time," I said, before quickly explaining what had happened the night before and then this morning.

"I was kinda dreading that something like this would happen…" Thalia mumbled.

"I never really considered it happening," I admitted. "But I'm pretty sure that Annabeth is on her way over to your place as we speak."

Thalia sighed again. "OK, what do you want me to do?"

Luckily, this was one of those rare moments when I had a plan already.

"Tell her your opinion. You know that I would never hurt her, so try to convince her. And don't tell her that I called you."

Thalia of course had something to say about my brilliant plan.

"But how are you going to win her back?"

_Maybe you should have thought of that first! _I scolded myself.

"Uuh..." I stammered.

I could hear the grin that Thalia was wearing.

"You guys do have security cameras in the hallways, right?"

I knew where she was going with this.

"Thalia," I said.

"Tell me," she replied. This time I could practically hear the smirk.

"You're a genius."

"I know."

**A.N.: **_so… what are they planning? :O _

_I know that I haven't updated "A Life In One Shots" for a while, but bear with me. This story is more important, I've been struggling to write the next chapter and I've been busy. But I hope to have it up soon._

_By the way, I hope this chapter was long enough! Almost 5 Word pages long. I could have gone on and on, but I actually have to study for my science test tomorrow. Its biology this term, so I hope I'll do better than I did last term (we had physics). _

_Until next time (:_

_P.S.: if you hit that review button, the Percy Jackson boy of your choice (could be Percy, Leo, Jason, Nico, Beckendorf…) will appear next to you and kiss your cheek. And if you happen to be a guy, same thing, but it will be the girl of your choice. Nice reward hey? (;_


	21. Chapter 21

**Outlaw: Running From Love**

**Chapter 21**

**A.N.: **_I'm amazed at the amount of reviews/favourites/follows this story has! Thank you for still reading even when I update late (like this time, I was supposed to update yesterday) or don't write very well. _

_Thank you to everybody who reviewed the last chapter and/or followed and/or favourited the story!_

_Anyway, some of you guessed what is going to happen, but I hope that you will still enjoy it. So read on!_

**Disclaimer: **_I don't_****_own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Plain and simple._

**ANNABETH POV:**

When I arrived at Thalia's mansion, a maid took my jacket, hung it up and ushered me inside. When I walked into the kitchen, I was surprised to find Thalia already awake and sipping coffee while sitting on the counter. She was still in her pyjamas and slippers and she didn't look happy about being woken up before eleven on a Saturday morning. But when she saw me, she put down her mug, jumped off the counter and hugged me.

"How are you doing?" she asked after pulling away and taking a step back. I had texted her to explain what had happened on my way over.

I was still shocked at the fact that Thalia, heart of stone, had actually hugged me.

"I'm doing as well as I could be," I told her, my face deadpan.

Thalia looked like she was having an internal battle over whether she wanted to be a good friend and talk to me, or whether she was going to be Thalia and insist on watching a bad comedy with a large bowl of popcorn in the mansion's movie room. The first option appeared to win out. She, discreetly, pulled a face before she recovered her normal expression. I raised a questioning eyebrow at her.

"Let's go to my room," she said before turning and walking out of the kitchen.

I trailed up the almost never-ending flights of stairs behind Thals. When we reached her room, she sat down on a black beanbag, which lay next to the bed. After flopping onto said beanbag, Thalia motioned for me to occupy the bed. I sat down, crossed my arms and bit my lip.

"Don't look so nervous," Thalia chided me. "This isn't witness interrogation."

I almost laughed, but I kept my vacant expression except for a small smile.

Thalia sighed. "Just tell me the whole story," she demanded.

So I explained how I had found Rachel and Percy outside my apartment, how Percy had spent the night outside my room on the fire escape and how he had tried to talk to me when I left the building that morning. Eventually, my friend was staring at me like I was a complete idiot.

"What?" I asked, confused by her expression.

"For a smart chick, you can be so dumb!" she cried exasperatedly. "_He spent the night on the fire escape, _Annabeth. If that doesn't say 'I'm sorry, I love you,' then I don't know what does!"

I glared at her before explaining my actions.

"I don't want to be hurt again, Thalia!" I snapped. "I don't want to risk giving him another chance and then being let down again!"

Thalia contemplated my answer before snapping back, "Annabeth, the guy is in love with you!"

I averted my gaze and shook my head.

"Then why was he kissing Rachel?" I challenged.

Thalia sighed again. I knew that I was giving her as hard a time as she was giving me right now.

"Did you ever stop to consider that maybe Rachel threw herself on Percy?"

I had of course decided that that was a possibility, but considering the state of mind I was in when I saw them, I immediately decided that it was unlikely.

"Of course I did, but its unlikely!" I argued. "He used to be in love with her."

Thalia groaned. "You are being impossible!" she cried. "Percy doesn't feel anything for that stupid redhead anymore, and even less after he saw her on that date of yours!"

"I… I…" I couldn't speak. What if I had been wrong? I was _never_ wrong!

And even if I was wrong, I refused to bounce back to Percy. He had hurt me, either on purpose or by accident, and I was not about to open up so quickly again. I would not go running back to him, he would have to really prove his feelings first.

"I won't run back into his arms right away, even if this is all a mistake," I said quietly. "He will have to prove to me that his really does love me first."

"Gosh, you're being so sappy right now," Thalia huffed.

I decided not to resist the urge to laugh this time, and I chuckled softly at Thalia's complaints.

"I got you to smile at least," Thalia said, seeming quite proud of herself.

"OK, I'll give you that," I agreed. "But what should I do about this whole thing?" I said, getting back to the original topic of discussion.

"Well…" Thalia trailed off, musing over what she was going to say next. "There is a security camera system in the complex, isn't there?"

"Yes…" I replied, wondering where she was going with this.

"Well, if you just watch the security video, you'll find out what really happened," she explained, matter-of-factly. "And if it has audio, even better!"

She had a good point, but as usual I had the perfect argument.

"Thalia, I don't want to watch it and find out that I'm right," I argued. "I refuse to watch the video, even if you go with me," I added when she tried out her pleading face.

"But Annabeth, wouldn't it be worth the risk if he isn't cheating?" Thalia begged. I wasn't sure why she was trying so hard to get me to give in, but I knew she had a reason. I just couldn't figure out what it could be.

I sighed. "Maybe," I replied reluctantly. "But I still don't want to see it. Right now if I even see him I'll just break down again."

Thalia wore her expression that pretty much said: _I've done all that I can, but I still won't give up_. And that worried me. I knew that she would not let this drop. We sat in a stare off for about a minute, then she realised that I wouldn't cave easily.

"Let's have a movie day," Thalia suggested.

I agreed, and together we headed back down to the kitchen to get popcorn, soda and some candy. Thalia led me to the movie room, which was basically a mini movie theatre.

"What about the new _Footloose_?" Thalia suggested.

I shook my head. "It's a romantic movie," I explained.

Thalia nodded and continued to list her suggestions. I rejected every romantic comedy she mentioned, and soon Thals began only suggesting movies that had very little or no romance at all. We eventually settled on _Soul Surfer, Ice Age _and _Charlie's Angels. _

When we had eaten all the popcorn, drank all the soda and polished off all the candy, we decided to call it a day.

"Thanks, Thals. Today wasn't as bad as I expected it to be," I admitted as I gathered my belongings on the way out.

"I had a good time too," she said. "We should do something like this more often." She paused before saying something that I never would have dreamed she would ever say.

"I never knew that being a little girly on occasion could actually be kinda fun."

I stood and gaped at her.

"Did you seriously just say that?" I asked her, still shocked to the core.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," she said with a smirk. "Just don't tell Nico that I said that. He would never let me forget it!"

"Sure thing," I told her. "I'll see you at school."

"Alright. Think about the video, OK?" she asked one last time.

"Thalia," I began before she cut me off.

"I know what you said, but I really think that there must be another explanation. I doubt that Percy would have been cheating on you, and I don't want to see you give up this chance of happiness. Because there is always the chance that it could be your only one."

_That was deep, _I thought. _Especially coming from Goth Girl herself._

I sighed. "OK," I promised. "I'll think about it."

And I really did. The whole way home in the cab, Thalia's words rang in my head. _I don't want to see you give up this chance of happiness. Because there is always the chance that it could be your only one…_

I wasn't what she was trying to achieve here, but there had to be some explanation. I just had to figure it out.

I also wasn't sure as to why she was trying so hard to get me to look at the security camera footage. I saw her logic of course. If I watched it and saw that Rachel had flung herself on Percy, then everything would be fine again. But I didn't want to run the risk of watching it and finding that he really _had _gone behind my back.

I decided that for now, my heart would be safer if I didn't watch the footage. But there was always a chance that I could change my mind, and take up Thalia's offer of her watching it with me.

XXXX

When I got home, Cheryl had an envelope for me. My name was messily written on the front, and there was no return address or the name of the sender.

"Someone put it under the door," was all she said as she handed it to me.

I went into my room and lay down on my bed. I carefully opened the white paper envelope. I had an idea of whom it was from, but I didn't want to make any assumptions before I read it.

My breath caught in my throat as I scanned the lines.

_Annabeth,_

_You have to believe me. I would never do something like that to hurt you, on purpose or by accident. Ever! I miss you so much and it's only been one day. I know that I had a bad reputation, but I put that all behind me to be with you. I was worried that something like this would happen when we saw Rachel that night, because she had always been the jealous type. But I never imagined that something this bad would happen. I feel like a total idiot for letting this happen, even if it isn't my fault. It's Rachel's. Please forgive me?_

_Love _

_Your Seaweed Brain, Percy_

There were tears running down my cheeks by the time I had finished reading the note.

_Be stronger than this, Annabeth! _I scolded myself. _You can survive without him. _

If only I knew how wrong I was…

**A.N.: **_now what's going to happen? :O_

_I know that the letter is pretty sappy, but I thinks its cute, ha ha._

_I know that this chapter isn't very long, but I planned on stopping where Annabeth left Thalia, before the last page break. So it's longer than I intended! _

_I have another issue regarding the poll: two stories are tied again and are leading the other one by one vote -_- so please go vote!_

_By the way, I forgot to mention that I got my copy of Demigod Diaries in the post last week! :D but for some reason, it didn't have the character art in it ): but I still loved it! Haley's writing inspired me to use a thesaurus this time :P so I typed this up with a thesaurus in my hand to try and improve my vocabulary. _

_I just have to say that I think Haley wrote Son of Magic really well for a dyslexic and ADHD person. Reading his story actually made me feel like I suck. But anyway (: _

_Thanks for reading, I hope you liked it! _

_Review? It'll make me happy._


	22. Chapter 22

**Outlaw: Running From Love**

**Chapter 22**

**A.N.: **_MY TESTS AND EXAMS ARE ALL OVER! And now it's a long weekend and then a four-day-last-week-of-school-for-the-term! Bring on the holidays! That means (hopefully) multiple updates in a week, and if I can finish this story soon, the start of a new one! But I still want a definite win on the poll._

_I want to give Ambassador of Hades a special mention, because he has practically been my "publicist", posting links to this story on Twitter, Facebook and Google+. Thank you so much! _

_And thank you to everybody else who reviewed the last chapter! I'm amazed at the number of reviews. Can we make it to 300 (or maybe 350) by the end?_

**Disclaimer: **_I don't have any rights to the Percy Jackson books. I wish I did, but I don't and I never will._

**PERCY POV:**

Thalia called me as soon as Annabeth left her house.

"Did she watch the footage?" I asked immediately.

"No," replied Thalia. "And she refuses to."

I was just about to start complaining, when Thalia cut me off.

"But give it two, three weeks tops and she will be begging me to watch it with her."

"Why with her?" I asked, puzzled.

"Because she will want some moral support," Thalia explained. "She would want to be prepared to watch you cheat on the surveillance footage."

"Right. That makes sense," I decided. I paused before asking, "How long do you think it will be before she caves?"

I didn't want to think that she could be ready to forgive me in a few weeks if there was a chance that she never would. I didn't want to hurt more than I already was.

"Probably between two and three weeks," Thalia repeated. "But it could be more. You know how Annabeth always wants to be seen as the strong one. I don't think she'll give in easily."

Thalia had a point. Annabeth _wouldn't _give in and watch the video easily for fear of being hurt more, and then if she did watch the video it would be difficult to get her to actually admit that she was wrong. I was beginning to fear that this would be harder than I had originally contemplated.

XXXX

The next two weeks were terrible. Rumours spread around school like wildfire. Some of them said that I had dumped Annabeth to get back together with Rachel. Another one was that Annabeth had caught Rachel and I together in my bedroom doing… something that I never want to do with Rachel. _Ever. _

The third alternative was that we had been at a party. Annabeth had gone to the bathroom and when she came back, she found Rachel and I sitting on a couch, caught in a lip lock.

None of the rumours were true. Not even close.

People avoided me in the hallways. Not even the desperate, easy girls tried to cling onto me as they usually did. No guys clapped my back and said, "Good job, Perce," like they always had done whenever I moved on to the next girl. It was like I had the Black Plague or something. Nobody would go anywhere near me.

I wondered why people were suddenly anti-Percy, but then I saw Annabeth for the first time since the incident. Needless to say, she had been avoiding me.

She was collecting books from her locker, and as she turned, I saw her face.

She was still breathtakingly beautiful to me, but her eyes had dark purple shadows underneath, her hair was dull and limp, her eyes had lost their shine and her skin no longer tanned and healthy, but so pale. Even then (and I sound extremely sappy), I could still see how beautiful she was.

Then she saw me looking and turned away. As she turned, she shot me a look that I can't describe. It was a mix between longing, hurt, sadness and disbelief. I could also see by her expression that she missed me.

I understood then why people had been avoiding me.

Annabeth had been popular. She mixed well with people and was friends with almost everybody. Most of the guys thought she was smoking hot and some of the girls (the ones who weren't jealous of the attention she got) admired her and wanted to be friends with her.

And now they thought that I had broken her heart.

Even if it wasn't on purpose, I had done this to her. It was my fault that she looked depressed and halfway dead. It was my fault that she felt so much pain.

It was one lesson until lunch, but I couldn't stay there, in that building, while there were people glaring into the back of my head and constantly reminding me of the mistakes I had made. I felt like I was suffocating, being constricted by a snake. Hundreds of snakes, all blaming me for something that didn't happen. Something that was an accident. And I was tired of this after dealing with it for weeks.

I just had to get out of there.

I pushed my way out of the crowded hallway, through the sea of people giving me dirty looks, even after two weeks. I made my way to the double doors that exited the school and roughly pushed my way through them.

Then I ran.

I ran down the road in the opposite direction of my apartment. I kept running until I found a subway entrance. I pushed through the crowd and finally reached the ticket booth. I paid for one ticket to the first destination that I saw light up on the board. New Jersey.

"You'd better hurry, son," the man behind the counter told me. "The train leaves in five minutes."

"Thanks," I said, my face deadpan, before I turned and ran to the platform I needed to be on to catch the train.

As I ran, I heard the final boarding call. I sped up. Why it was so important to catch this train, I had no idea. I guess I just wanted to get away from all my problems.

I saw the doors beginning to close, so I jumped and managed to only just avoid being crushed between the electronic doors.

I look around for an empty seat and sat down. The only open one was next to a middle-aged businessman. He looked up from his iPad to look at me.

"Shouldn't you be in school?" he asked as he went back to playing Angry Birds.

"Yes, sir," I mumbled.

"So why aren't you?"

He used his last bird and failed the level. He closed the iPad case and turned his head to face me.

"I couldn't take it," I admitted. "Something bad happened, and everyone thinks it's my fault."

"You know that running away isn't going to solve anything?" he said as though reminding me of something I should remember.

"I know," I muttered. "But I just need to clear my head."

We sat in silence for a while before the man struck up conversation again.

"Is she pretty?"

"Wha-what?" I stuttered. I hadn't said anything about Annabeth, had I?

"The girl you're thinking about," he explained.

"How do you-"

"I can tell by your expression," he continued. "Often, people get that particular look on their face when thinking of how a relationship has been messed up."

"Yeah?" I asked. "Are you a psychologist or something?"

"Actually, yes."

I was slightly taken aback that I had barely said anything about my reasons for being here, and this stranger knew that something was up with a girl.

"Yes, she's beautiful," I said to answer his previous question.

There was silence for a few more minutes, but then the psychologist broke it again.

"Would you like to talk about it?"

"Only if you don't charge me," I joked, although my expression stayed impassive.

He laughed quietly. "No. Think of this as your free trial."

I may have cracked a small smile before I launched into my long, painful story.

When I finished, he looked at me carefully.

"You were an outlaw," he stated.

"Excuse me?" I asked. How on earth had he come up with that? Robin Hood was an outlaw, "robbing the rich to feed the poor". I wasn't a criminal.

"An outlaw running from love," he explained.

I nodded for him to continue.

"You see," he began, "after experiencing heartbreak, many men often try to elude love. They run from it so as not to get caught and hurt again. So instead of being in one committed relationship, they either enter into many casual ones, or, as the youth of today say, become players."

I had to admit to myself that this random man I happened to be sitting next to on the subway was actually talking sense.

"That makes sense," I decided out loud.

"But now the trouble is that your outlaw days have caught up to your new life. This is also quite common, believe it or not."

Then a voice came over the intercom.

"All passengers leaving the train at New Jersey please note that we will be arriving momentarily. Please stay seated until we have come to a complete stop to avoid any injuries. Any forgotten luggage will be taken to lost and found, where you will be able to claim it at a later stage. Thank you."

"Well," stated my companion. "This is my stop."

"Thanks for you help," I said as I stood up to go over to the door.

"Don't mention it," he replied. "Just don't leave things as they are now. Do your best to get her back."

"Thanks, I'll do what I can," I answered before I disappeared into the crowd.

"Good luck!" I heard him call out after me.

"Thanks!" I replied before exiting the station.

Just then my phone rang.

"_Where the hell are you?_"Thalia practically screamed at me.

"Calm down, Thals-" I said, only to be cut off by her.

"I will _not_ calm down and _don't_ call me 'Thals' when I'm cross with you_!_"

I sighed. "I'm in New Jersey."

"What on _earth_ are you doing _there_?"

"I'm sorry, Thalia, but I had to get away from everything," I explained. "Everyone was giving me death-stares."

She sighed. "I know, Percy. I swear I didn't say anything about this to anyone. Rachel must have said something to someone and then it got blown out of proportion."

"I know you would never do that Thals," I replied. "Rachel probably would though."

"When are you coming back? Paul called your mom to tell her that you ran off, so naturally she's panicking. Luckily Paul managed to pull some strings, so you wont get a harsh punishment." She paused before continuing. "Annabeth is also worried about you, but she won't admit it."

Hearing that Annabeth was worried about me (even if she wouldn't admit to it) gave me a good feeling deep inside. It was small, and deep down, but it was there, and it felt good.

"Really?" I asked. "She's worried about me?"

"Yes," Thalia stated. "And you know what this means, right?"

Then it hit me.

"She still cares about me."

"Right you are."

Then I knew exactly what I had to do.

"I'm getting the subway home now," I told my cousin.

"OK. What are you planning, Kelp Head?" she asked cautiously.

"Just make sure that you and Annabeth are in the surveillance room when I get there."

"Percy-"

"We're going to make her watch that video," I said.

"But what if she doesn't go with me?" Thalia asked. She had a point.

"Do what ever you have to, just get her there," I begged. "Please, Thalia. I… I don't want her to hurt anymore. And I don't want to hurt anymore either."

She sighed. "I'll do my best."

"Thanks, Thals. I'll see you soon."

Then I hung up and went to purchase a ticket back to Manhattan, so that I could get home and get my girlfriend back.

**A.N.: **_I'm really sorry that I updated this late. I went out with some friends and didn't have time to finish typing this up before I went over to my gran to spend the night. Luckily, I had my laptop with me so I could finish typing this up. Then I ran into another problem._

_Her Internet has a password, and it wasn't written on the modem. And her computer is being repaired so I couldn't even email it to her and upload it. But here it is! And I hope to update the next chapter tomorrow because it's a public holiday :D _

_And like I said, expect regular updates the week after next because its holidays! _

_And if updates are slow next term, its because I'm starting AdMaths… hopefully it wont affect updates too much, but I'm supposed to work on it for three hours a week. _

_Anyway, thanks for reading (:_

_And I will update soon and maybe also a new one shot about Rachel…_


	23. Chapter 23

**Outlaw: Running From Love**

**Chapter 23**

**A.N.: **_Back again! _

_First: I got so many nice reviews for the last chapter! Thank you! And you all seemed to like the psychologist :D_

_Second: I know this is later than I said it would be, but I ended going out for breakfast with my mum and then having my grandparents and a friend of my mum's over for a braai (for National Braai Day, aka Heritage Day) and I had to be "polite" and I wasn't allowed to hole up in my room to write. It was fun in the end though._

_But anyway, the chapter is here! Enjoy!_

**ANNABETH POV:**

I soon discovered that I hated not having Percy around, and that I, in fact, couldn't live without him (as cliché as it sounds).

_Get a hold of yourself! _I reprimanded myself (again). _He's one guy. You don't need him, _that small voice told me.

But that voice didn't sound so convincing.

The next two weeks were the worst of my life. I barely slept, my grades dropped and I lost my appetite. I was depressed. My dad and Cheryl had no idea what to do with me. The school counsellor had asked to see me, but I wouldn't talk. I didn't even tell Thalia what was going on in my head, because I didn't know how to word my thoughts.

When I walked to classes, the people in the hallways gave my sympathetic glances. It felt strange, like some horrible crime had been committed against me, and they didn't know how to offer their support. I hated it. I didn't want pity.

I noticed that even the girls who had never liked me were trying their best to be nice. Except for one, Holly Black.

Holly was in my physics class, and had always had something against me. She was viewed as one of the easiest girls in school, with her (fake) blonde hair, brown eyes and her face caked in make up.

Where as almost everyone else had offered support, she had just insulted me.

"I'm not surprise her left her," she loudly whispered to one of her tag-alongs. "No fashion sense and that hair colour can't be real. And she probably didn't give him what he wants, if you know what I mean." Her cronies started giggling, and I lost it.

"You're one to talk," I snapped back before I could stop myself. "You barely have any clothes on and I can see your roots are brown!"

She seemed shocked that I had challenged her. I carried on to my seat without waiting for a response.

The lessons dragged, and soon it was only one lesson until lunch.

I went to my locker to get books for my next lesson, and then I saw him.

I hadn't seen him in two weeks. We didn't have any classes together, he didn't sit in the cafeteria at lunch anymore and I always tried my best to avoid him at our lockers by being there early and running off to my next class. He was almost always late, so I had always managed to avoid him.

Until now.

He had gotten there early. I refused the urge to look at him while I collected my books, but when I turned around to leave he caught my eye.

I knew that I looked bad, but he looked almost like he did when I last saw him. But then I noticed the dark circles under his eyes and his slightly duller hair. Then I noticed that the shine in his eyes had also disappeared.

I turned away so I didn't have to look at him anymore. But then I realised something. _He looked depressed._

Surely he wouldn't look that way if he didn't care about me?

All of a sudden I had an urge to watch the surveillance video. I had to know what really happened! It was eating me up inside, not knowing.

I made up my mind. I was going to talk to Percy first, get him to plead his case. Then after school, I would get Thalia to go with us to watch the footage. If Percy didn't want me to see it, then he was obviously cheating and trying to hide it from me.

I looked for him before the bell rang, but I didn't have much time before my next class was going to start, and I couldn't find him. I decided that I would speak to him at lunch.

So when it was time for lunch, I headed over to mine, Thalia, Nico and Percy's usual table. For the past two weeks, Percy had gone to sit by himself, outside or occasionally at an empty table, leaving the three of us alone. I'm actually quite pleased that Percy chose to go and eat elsewhere, because it would have been really awkward if he hadn't.

When I reached the table, I blurted out, "Where's Percy?" without thinking about explaining my reasons for wanting to see him.

"I don't know," Thalia, replied, her expression showing that she was a little worried about something.

"What do you mean, you don't know?" I challenged.

"She means that he's gone," Nico said matter-of-factly. "Nobody has seen him since the lesson before last."

"Sally called us in a panic after Paul called her to ask if he'd gone home," Thalia explained.

A million thoughts were running through my head.

_What if he was kidnapped? _

Too unlikely.

_Went out to get something and was mugged? _

Also unlikely. What would he need to fetch?

Then the really bad options began swimming in my head.

What if he was so depressed after seeing me in the hallway that he ran away?

Possible thought I hated to admit it.

_What if he's gone and done something drastic, like kiled himself?_

"He's run away," I muttered. Nico nodded his head, confirming my suspicion.

Now I was struggling not to panic. I told myself to take deep breaths to calm myself, but suddenly the room was spinning and I had collapsed into the empty seat besides Thalia.

"Annabeth? Are you OK?" she asked, but her voice sounded far away.

In reality, I knew that Percy would never do something stupid like that. But in that moment, I felt so guilty that I couldn't help but think that if something happened to him, it was my fault.

"Didn't he say anything before he ran off?" I asked, hoping that maybe he had given Nico or Thalia a clue as to where he might go.

"Nothing," Nico replied. "And he hasn't been answering his phone. The message says he's out of range or something."

I sat through lunch and then the following lesson, wondering where on earth Percy would have gone. I began to feel guilty for not giving him a chance to explain himself and maybe watch that video earlier.

What I was sure of though, was that it was my fault that he had run away. I wasn't entirely sure how I came to that conclusion, but I knew that I was at least partially to blame for his sudden disappearance.

After the lesson following lunch, Thalia and I both had a free period. We went outside and sat on the bleachers around the football field. And after sitting in silence for a while, I broke the silence.

"Try calling him again."

"Who? Percy?" Thalia asked.

I nodded yes, and watched as she pulled her cell phone out of her bag.

"Put it on speaker," I told her. She obeyed, although she looked at me as if I had just told her something shocking and hard to believe.

It rang a few times, and then I heard him pick up. She didn't even give him time to say hello, and she was yelling at him.

"_Where the hell are you?_"Thalia practically screamed at him.

"Calm down, Thals-" he said, only for her to cut him off.

"I will _not_ calm down and _don't_ call me 'Thals' when I'm cross with you_!_"she spat.

I heard Percy sigh and say, "I'm in New Jersey."

"What on _earth_ are you doing _there_?" Thalia asked, as I covered my mouth to stop a gasp from escaping.

"I'm sorry, Thalia, but I had to get away from everything," he explained. "Everyone was giving me death-stares."

Thalia sighed. "I know, Percy. I swear I didn't say anything about this to anyone. Rachel must have said something to someone and then it got blown out of proportion."

"I know you would never do that Thals," he replied sincerely. "Rachel probably would though."

"When are you coming back? Paul called your mom to tell her that you ran off, so naturally she's panicking. Luckily Paul managed to pull some strings, so you wont get a harsh punishment." Thalia said and then and glanced in my direction before continuing. "Annabeth is also worried about you, but she won't admit it."

I glared at Thalia, but she didn't react.

"Really?" I heard Percy ask. "She's worried about me?" He sounded hopeful.

"Yes," Thalia stated. "And you know what this means, right?"

"She still cares about me," he said, putting the pieces together.

"Right you are."

"I'm getting the subway home now," he said, quickly.

"OK. What are you planning, Kelp Head?" Thalia asked cautiously.

"Just make sure that you and Annabeth are in the surveillance room when I get there."

"Percy-"

"We're going to make her watch that video," he said. _So he can't have been cheating! He _wants_ me to watch the video!_

"But what if she doesn't go with me?" Thalia asked. She probably knew that I would go willingly, but she had to keep up the act. After all, Percy didn't know that he was on speakerphone.

"Do what ever you have to, just get her there," he begged. "Please, Thalia. I… I don't want her to hurt anymore. And I don't want to hurt anymore either."

I felt like I was frozen in happiness. The sincerity in his voice made me realise right then that I had been wrong.

She sighed, though she was smiling at me simultaneously. "I'll do my best."

"Thanks, Thals. I'll see you soon."

I heard the sound of Percy hanging up. I realised that I was staring at the phone, so I looked up at Thalia, my eyes wide.

"Are you convinced now?" she asked.

I nodded because the words wouldn't flow. Then I gulped and replied.

"Yes."

Thals grinned at me, and I smiled back.

"Let's go get your boyfriend back."

I felt myself blush, but I couldn't care less, because Percy still cared, he hadn't cheated, and he was about to be mine again.

**A.N.: **_YAY! :D_

_I'm sorry for stopping there, but I had to! And I promise that I will try to get the next chapter up by Friday at the latest, and if there's one after that it will be up on Saturday._

_I'm still working on the Rachel one shot, but its coming along._

_And please vote on my poll! Again, two stories are tied and the other is winning by one vote. As soon as this story is finished (which will be soon) I'm starting with the next one. So I need a winner! Voting will close on Sunday! _

_Thank you so much for reading (:_


	24. Chapter 24

**Outlaw: Running From Love**

**Chapter 24**

**A.N.: **_OK, I'm back! Good news: I think I may have a winner on the poll! But don't stop voting! Bad news: this will probably be the second last chapter of this story ): after this, I will do an epilogue and then I will start the next one (: Expect the epilogue sometime this weekend._

_To everybody who reviewed: THANK YOU! They all made me smile! Thanks you to and Pokemonchenfor pointing out a spelling error and also to Flygrrl. I'm guessing when you commented "Oppa Gangnam Style" it was a good thing? Either way, it made me laugh!_

_Ready for the next chapter? READ ON!_

**PERCY POV:**

The subway ride back to Manhattan seemed longer than the one to New Jersey. But eventually I was back in my hometown (city?). And I had a mission.

As I ran towards my apartment from the station, I wondered if Thalia had managed to get Annabeth to go with her to see the footage. It was the only thing worrying me at that moment. But if Annabeth wasn't there, I would make another plan to expose the truth to her and win her back. I had to.

The first thing I did when I got to my building was go home to reassure my mom that I was fine. Like Thalia had said, she'd completely panicked and gone into freak-out mode. She hugged me so tightly I felt sure that my lungs would pop.

When she eventually let me go, I explained my plan to her.

"Let's just hope that it all works," she said. I could tell that she also missed Annabeth. Not as much as I did, but a lot.

"Fingers crossed," I replied before heading to the door and closing it behind me.

I took a deep breath, and slowly began the descent down to the security room on the first floor. I texted Thalia to make sure that she was on her way, and I got a reply in no time.

_Everything's going according to plan. Waiting with A in security room._

_-T_

I smiled as I read the text. _She's there! _I thought. _And she's finally going to see what really happened._

My heart began pounding, harder and faster the closer I got to the security room. When I reached the door, it felt like my heart was trying to completely break free of my chest. I took a deep breath, and opened the door.

Before I could take in the small room, Annabeth caught my eye. She was wearing a pair of dark skinny jeans, old converse, and T-shirt with an animated picture of an owl on it and a black faux leather jacket, her blonde hair braided neatly down her back and her fringe slightly covering the left side of her face. She was beautiful.

Then I noticed that the tape was already playing and that Annabeth hadn't taken her eyes off the screen. Thalia looked up, saw me and waved me over to where she was standing behind Annabeth who occupied the only chair in front of the monitor. Her eyes were wide and one of her hands covered her mouth as she silently watched the footage.

I turned my attention to the screen, and saw myself hit Rachel across the face.

"_You've ruined everything!"_ the me on the screen sobbed. I noticed that tears had been streaming down my face. _"And maybe you should take a look at yourself before calling somebody a 'slut'." _

On screen Rachel gasped and turned to leave still clutching her face while I headed to the stairs. Than the tape turned off.

For the first time, Annabeth seemed to realise that I was standing behind her. I saw that tears were running down her cheeks. She shakily stood up to face me, taking her hand away from her mouth.

"I'm so sorry, Percy," she whispered. "I should have believed you."

At first, I was so amazed that she actually admitted that she had been wrong and had also apologised for it that I didn't really pay attention to the fact that she was actually talking to me after two weeks.

I smiled slightly and opened my arms, inviting her in for a hug. I noticed for the first time, out of the corner of my eye, that the old security guard had been watching us from the corner of the room. Annabeth buried her face in my chest, while I rested my head on hers. I was vaguely aware of Thalia pulling the grey haired man out of the room.

I wanted to let myself get lost in that moment, but there were things that needed to be said.

"I'm sorry, Wise Girl," I whispered into her hair.

She lifted her head to look me in the eye. "Why?"

"Because this whole mess is my fault. If I had never been the way I was, non of this would have happened," I explained as I gently wiped the tears off her cheeks.

She shook her head. "Its not your fault," she said, looking me straight in the eye. "Rachel is to blame for this mess."

I knew there was no arguing with her, and that she was partially right, so I just nodded and held her tighter.

"What are we going to do now?" she asked timidly. "I mean, where do we stand?"

I knew what she was asking. _Would we be together again?_ It was really more a case of _could _we be together again?

"I love you," I said, looking her directly in the eye. "I never lied to you, at all. And I want to be with you, no matter what."

She smiled a tearful smile, but the unshed tears made her eyes sparkle a beautiful silver colour.

"I love you, too," she replied. "And I want that too."

I smiled at her. I gently cupped her face in my hands, wiped away another stray tear and leaned down so that my face was in front of hers. I could feel her warm breath on my lips and nose, and I suddenly felt nervous.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and whispered, "Annabeth?"

"Yes?" she whispered back.

"May I kiss you?"

She smiled bashfully before replying. "I wish you would."

I leaned in and gently pressed my lips to hers, and I felt those sparks that I had missed so much. Her soft warm lips moved in perfect synch against mine and I realised just how much I had really missed my Wise Girl. I pulled away momentarily to tell her this. She chuckled, and leaned in to kiss me again.

I don't know how much time passed, but when we were both out of breath, she gently pulled away.

"I love you so much, Seaweed Brain," she said quietly.

I rested my forehead against hers. "I love you too, Wise Girl."

Annabeth rested her head on my shoulder before speaking again.

"Thank you for standing up to Rachel for me," she mumbled.

"Any time, Wise Girl. And don't you believe for one minute that anything she said was true."

"I won't," she reassured me.

"Good," I replied, before gently kissing her cheek.

Thalia decided that then was the perfect time to interrupt us. She flung open the door causing us both to jump.

"Sorry lovebirds, but Sally wants Percy to start on his homework," she said, not looking apologetic at all.

"Really?" I whined. "Thals-"

"And she made blue cookies," Thalia finished.

That immediately caught my attention, and I dragged Annabeth by the hand out of the room and up the stairs to my apartment. Thalia followed and both girls laughed at my obsession over my mother's baking.

I realised that this was what I wanted: to be happy and to be with Annabeth. I also realised how much she had changed my life. Everything was different now that I had her, but I preferred having things this way. And I planned on keeping it like this.

**A.N.: **_so, what did you guys think? Happy now? _

_That was an extremely fluffy chapter! And I'm sorry if it wasn't very long, but the epilogue might be up tomorrow! :D_

_Thanks so much for reading and thanks for the support! _


	25. Chapter 25: Epilogue

**Outlaw: Running From Love**

**Chapter 25: Epilogue**

**A.N.: **_It's the end! I can't believe it! Really, I can't! It honestly feels like I began this story last week, not a few months ago! Thank you for the continuous support and amazing reviews, there wasn't a single flame!_

_To everyone who reviewed regularly, thanks a million! You know who you are, and I can't thank you enough!_

_Ambassador of Hades asked if the psychologist was going to make another appearance, and I said yes. But, unfortunately, him coming back didn't fit with the way I wanted to end the story. I would have loved to have him in the story again, but it just didn't work._

_So, here it is. The final chapter-slash-epilogue:_

**ANNABETH POV: **

_Two yeas later…_

I carefully packed a pile of books into the cardboard box that sat next to my bed. I had arranged all the titles alphabetically so that I would easily be able to keep track of where they all were. I had tried to explain this to Percy (my boyfriend of almost three years now), but, being the Seaweed Brain that he is, he didn't understand the concept and instead threw a pile of books into a random box before collapsing onto my bed.

"Why can't you just go to NYU with me?" he asked/complained for the hundredth time. "Because really, why do you want to go to the other side of the country?"

I sighed and rolled my eyes. Of course he already knew the answer, but I think that he was secretly hoping that I would change my mind. I had been accepted to a few schools, but I had chosen the University of Southern California for their architecture course, while Percy was studying marine biology at NYU.

It had been a hard decision, choosing to be on the other side of the country to my boyfriend, friends and family, but once I had my degree I would move back to New York. Anyway, I would be home for breaks and Percy would be able to visit me sometimes.

"Because USC has a better architecture program," I said (for the hundredth time). "It's not like I want to leave."

"But I'm going to miss you, Wise Girl!" Percy moaned as he wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me down on top of him

I laughed and hugged him tightly while burying my face in his neck.

"I'll miss you too, Seaweed Brain," I mumbled. "But we can Skype every day, and text and phone. And I won't be gone long."

"It will feel long to me," Percy said stubbornly before kissing the top of my head. "And Skype isn't the same as having you here with me. I can't kiss you over Skype for one thing." I could hear that he was grinning by the tone of his voice.

"I know. But it's not permanent," I reassured him. "I'll move back here when I've graduated."

He leaned down to gently kiss my lips, and I kissed him back. Slowly, the originally gentle kiss became more and more heated. Our tongues danced together, and our mouths moved in harmony. Soon I was sitting in his lap, facing him.

Percy carefully pushed my down so that I lay on my back with my head at the foot of the bed. He cautiously moved up my body to keep from breaking the kiss. I let my hands creep up his shirt and roam his muscular chest, while his lifted my shirt slightly to rest in my waist.

"I love you," he whispered against my lips.

"I love you, too," I whispered back.

I pulled Percy's shirt over his head and flung it across the room. He moved to pull my shirt off as well, when we were interrupted by a knock on the door that I hadn't completely closed.

"Annabeth?" called Cheryl. She pushed the door open expecting to find Percy and I packing my stuff in boxes. Instead, my stepmother found my boyfriend, shirtless, and laying on top of me on my bed. Her eyes widened and she breathed in sharply. I instantly felt my face heat up.

"Hi, Cheryl," said Percy with a slight tremor in his voice. "How've you been?"

This wasn't how I had planned on Percy and my family seeing each other for the first time since the start of the last college semester.

He carefully climbed off me and went to retrieve his shirt while I sat up, not meeting the widened eyes of my stepmother who was staring me down. She looked away to answer Percy's question.

"Good, thank you. How's college?" she asked cautiously.

"It's been stressful," he answered while pulling his shirt over his head. "Other than that, great."

"Great…" Cheryl trailed off.

I still sat on my bed, listening to their exchange and wishing that the ground would swallow me up. I may have been almost nineteen and Percy twenty, but I knew that there was still a chance that my parents would give the two of us the 'talk'.

An awkward silence filled the room. None of us moved a muscle. After what felt like ages, Cheryl broke it.

"Would either of you like something to eat?" she asked.

"Yes, please," I replied at the same time Percy did, although I still couldn't look her in the eye.

"OK. I'll call you when it's ready," she said and made to leave.

When she reached the door, Cheryl pushed it all the way open and raised an eyebrow at me.

"Leave the door open," she instructed. "And if you ever do anything, use protection."

Then she turned and left, Percy burst out laughing and my face grew even redder.

"I'm serious!" Cheryl called from the hallway.

"Oh, my gosh!" I exclaimed. "That was so embarrassing!"

"It wasn't that bad," Percy said as he sat down besides me and put his arm around my shoulders. "She's just looking out for you."

"I know," I said. "But she didn't need to tell us that."

Percy smiled mischievously at me before asking, "Now, where were we?"

"Percy the door is wide open," I reminded him, but his lips had already found my neck and began trailing up my jaw.

"Doesn't matter," he mumbled in my ear.

I chuckled as I lifted my head to catch his lips in mine. Soon, we were lying down, facing one another. Percy had an arm draped over my hip and the other under my neck. Both my hands were twisted into his raven hair and I had hitched one leg over his hip.

I pulled away and whispered, "I love you, Percy."

He smiled. "I love you too, Annabeth. And I'm going to miss you so much."

He pulled me closer and wrapped both arms around me, burying his face in my hair.

"I'll miss you too, Seaweed Brain." I replied. "But we still have two weeks before I leave, and I'll be back before you know it."

"I know," he sighed. "But its going to be so strange not seeing you everyday."

I held onto him tighter and pushed my face into his chest. "I know. We'll make it through, you know we will."

"I know."

Then my stepmother interrupted our intimate conversation by calling us for lunch.

"I'm not hungry anymore," Percy said in attempt to stay in my bedroom.

I laughed. "You're always hungry! And I'm hungry now, so lets go eat."

He sluggishly got up from my bed then pulled me up too. We walked hand in hand to where the rest of my family was waiting for us.

Despite everything that had happened, my family were quick to welcome Percy back into their lives. Bobby and Matthew were only too happy to have their video game buddy back again, and Cheryl was happy that I was happy. Although at first, Dad had been reluctant to allow me to see Percy, but we eventually managed to convince him otherwise (with some help from my step mom), and now he was perfectly fine about everything. He would never admit it, but I knew that he liked Percy much more than he let on. And now it was like nothing had ever happened.

Percy and I never talked about it, and neither did any of our friends. They knew that we didn't want to think about it, so they didn't bring it up. And that was how we wanted it.

Now when I think back to that time, I see how stupid I was in letting my pride get in the way. I should have listened to Percy and not been so determined to be right all the time.

But I realise that Percy and I know now that we can always trust each other. We don't keep secrets or tell lies. Sure we fight occasionally, but we always work it out. I lost him once, and I never plan on losing him again. I was so lost without him, and I know I would be if he ever left me, and vice versa.

In Percy's senior year yearbook, we were labelled as the couple most likely to be together forever. I had laughed, and blushed, and brushed off the romantics gushing over how cute we were. But I did admit to Thalia, that I thought whoever had decided to give us that title was right.

Even though I was going to the other side of the country for college, I would still come back to see my family and my Seaweed Brain, because I knew that I belonged with him, and him with me.

_The End_

**A.N.: **_I actually have (happy) tears in my eyes. Not because of the ending, but because I actually finished a story. _

_So what did you think? Not bad for a first story, huh? Ha ha!_

_So I'll be starting the next story some time this week. I finally got a clear winner on the poll and it is…_

_**Forbidden Love**_

_So thank you for all the votes! _

_I might change the title at some point, but it's not likely. Look out for it, because I will start it soon!_

_I have got my advanced maths course to complete over this week (I still have four lessons to work through before completing a tutorial for Friday at 09:00), but I promise to start the next story ASAP._

_Again, thank you for all the support and reviews! I went through a rough patch about halfway through this story, but I have to say that you guys and your encouraging reviews kept me going and helped a lot. _

_If not for the reviews, follows and favourites, I would never have finished this story. _

_Peace out and keep your eyes open! _

_xoxo_


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